Ive been studying web design all last year 2009.

 

My first website is basic, Ive still alot to learn ,Just want to pratice abit, thats all, go easy lol.

 

My website

 

Few quick tips:

 

- I didn't read through all your code but your html looked pretty good, but for your css:

 

- something like this

padding-left:3px;
padding-right:3px;
padding-top:4px;
padding-bottom:4px;

 

Can be combined to:

 

padding:4px 3px;

/* Or if you had all different padding widths */

padding: 3px 4px 5px 3px;

/* The above follows this pattern    padding: top  right  bottom  left ;*/

 

 

This form of condensing can also be used for margin's.

 

Also I noticed your using position absolute to position your elements, In most cases it is better to use position:relative; (which is the default setting) and use floats and clears

 

Decent start though

 

Edit:

border can also be combined so

border-style:solid;
border-width:2px;

 

 

becomes

 

border:solid 2px #000;

 

 

The order is irrelevant

Thanks for that tip on relative postion matey

If you look at my site you will see it's not much good taking advice from me. I will be redesigning soon, and when I do I will be softening the look. I have noticed that many websites use grey instead of black text to give a softer appearance. You may like to consider that.

 

Being of the 'old school' I am stuck with 'Tables'. It's good to see you are going with CSS right from the start.

Well Done.

 

PS. Just ordered a book about CSS so I'll be in the 'new school' soon.

Hi

 

Your site would look better central aligned.

 

Is this the first site you have made properly? If so I think it is a good attempt.

 

The colours from a design point of view and the square-ness of each content area feels a little old fashioned. Perhaps a good browse of CSS galleries will get you a feel for what is fashionable and visually pleasing.

 

 

I also think it looks better if you use 'I' instead of 'i' in your text- it looks a little lazy IMO.

 

I still have a lot to learn about CSS

 

Charlotte

 

yes its my first attempt.

 

I will be improving my website daily.For me its just pratice, and geting tips off here from you guys.

 

As for being old fashioned, you are right,as it only took me 3 hours to build.prob took the same for webdesigners in the 90s.which they used tables

Advice again please.

 

Ive validated my code and it says the dtd has a error in it.

 

Also the object tag, which is the video ive added.

Hi,

 

Not bad for a first attempt. I see you're using all XHTML (DIV's) and CSS which is good. You have 9 errors in your XHTML though.

 

A few things I would recommend doing based on my experience.

 

Learn to hand code in XHTML and CSS using strict standards. Concentrate on validity, positioning, the CSS box model and best practice coding. It should take you, based on your current skill level, between one to two months to have a good grounding in both technologies.

 

Once you've done the above you should concentrate on your actual design skills. I recommend learning Photoshop. It can be quite a steep learning curve for a beginner but after a month or so you will begin to get the hang of the various tools and techniques. I am still learning new stuff all the time. It's a very big program so don't think you have to learn everything right away. Also, concentrate on basic design principles such as colour theory, UI design and typography.

 

Once you're at a decent level with the above I would recommend learning JavaScript with a view to then later learning XML and AJAX.

 

After this you could begin learning PHP and MySQL.

 

Another important part of being a good web designer, which is often overlooked, is learning about search engines, SEO, Internet marketing and social media. These skills are invaluable.

 

If you take about a year or so to do all of the above I guarantee you will have the skill set to succeed in the industry.

 

I hope this helps.

Hi,

 

With regards to the object tag invalidity. The embed tag is now deprecated as of XHTML 1.0 and HTML 4.0.

 

There is a way to display valid flash elements in your page though. Use the following format.

 

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265px" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/7_6B6vwE83U"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7_6B6vwE83U" /></object>

 

Also, remove the reference to xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"

rebuilding my website.be back online soon.

Hi,

 

Not bad for a first attempt. I see you're using all XHTML (DIV's) and CSS which is good. You have 9 errors in your XHTML though.

 

A few things I would recommend doing based on my experience.

 

Learn to hand code in XHTML and CSS using strict standards. Concentrate on validity, positioning, the CSS box model and best practice coding. It should take you, based on your current skill level, between one to two months to have a good grounding in both technologies.

 

Once you've done the above you should concentrate on your actual design skills. I recommend learning Photoshop. It can be quite a steep learning curve for a beginner but after a month or so you will begin to get the hang of the various tools and techniques. I am still learning new stuff all the time. It's a very big program so don't think you have to learn everything right away. Also, concentrate on basic design principles such as colour theory, UI design and typography.

 

Once you're at a decent level with the above I would recommend learning JavaScript with a view to then later learning XML and AJAX.

 

After this you could begin learning PHP and MySQL.

 

Another important part of being a good web designer, which is often overlooked, is learning about search engines, SEO, Internet marketing and social media. These skills are invaluable.

 

If you take about a year or so to do all of the above I guarantee you will have the skill set to succeed in the industry.

 

I hope this helps.

 

 

What your saying above is correct, at the moment im reading books all the time on html and css, just bought a book on photoshop.at the moment photoshop is my weakness at the moment, and in a years time i hope my photoshop skills are great.

 

I plan to learn javascript soon, one thing at a time tho.Then other codes.