HTML/CSS website fundamentals class - textbook vs other books?
I was not sure whether to start a new thread or continue on my other, I though I would start anew, since my other is going further down the list of questions.
This past week was my 4th week in this class, & the assignment I had to do was frustrating for me, & I know alot of other students in the class found it hard as well. Our class was to make a small website with 5 html pages plus a home index page with 5 navigational links in a nvaibar to 5 pages where we provided a click able image link & describing our favorite websites, & make fancy fonts, & background colors. Perhaps I am a slow learner, & I am a visual learner, but this assignment felt to be too much too soon. The class has a "discussion board" where we can post out tech Qs throughout the semester. I flooded it with my questions, & a couple of students replied, the instructor does not participate as much, we are supposed to help each other. They were struggling with the assignment as well, & like me struggling with the CSS & html. In particular making an image into a click able link to take one to a website. We all finally figured this out. In addition to this, we were to make an animated gif as a separate exercise. Our textbook is this; http://www.amazon.com/HTML-Dog-Best-...6497057&sr=8-1 it got good reviews, & I guess it is good, but so far it has been only minimal help for me so far. Another student who replied to my threads suggested this book to me; http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself...6497034&sr=8-1 I was told, that someone would recommend some books for me, has anybody got any suggestions, as I stumble along in this class? I am in it now, too late to drop out & I am determined to do the best I can. |
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<a href="URL" target="_blank"><img src="URL.jpg"></a> Sort of like your text message post, the answers to problems are often easy yet easily overlooked. Quote:
If so, it's really hard to beat those "for Dummies" books. They're quick reads, and very basic, but you need to start somewhere. I've used a few dummies books in the past, for non-tech topics (cooking and foreign languages, for example). All "for Dummies" HTML books here: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&x=0&...reative=390957. There are some HTML + XHTML + CSS "for Dummies" integrated books, but I personally prefer learning each topic separately. And then if you look at the book description, it goes into advanced topics like PHP and MySQL development, which is way out of your league right now. Best to stick with the HTML book. I don't know that I'd waste time on the CSS for Dummies books. I can look around for you, if that's what you want -- tech books. |
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No wonder you're having a hard time! We'll get you set up with some better book suggestions. Something that truly introduces web coding, and then works you into applying it to actual projects (basic or advanced). I'm convinced your instructor is an idiot. I feel bad for you. But you can get through it with a little outside help. |
Thanks everyone for the responses, I hope no one minds here me using this forum and the posters here as a sort of supplemental instructors, (as there seems to be a general agreement that the instructor is an idiot) so I am going to need alternatives to survive & get through this class, & seems I have found it. I think my instructor is sort of going through the motions of what the school curriculum put together, she seems nice enough, but so far the book & some her voice threaded lectures have not been as helpful as I hoped. She is having us use either Dreamweaver or a free editor, Komodo edit as our coding editors, so far I have been using the free Komodo edit on my mac.
Yes, some other book suggestions would be helpful, both alternative texts to actual coding (since the one I have is no good) & texts on planning & marketing would be helpful as well. I find it easier to learn something when I can see things, see patterns & see the big picture, like how the smaller elements all fit together. If I am presented with just small snippets here & there without any unity, I get confused. This was our assignment last week for week 4; the past assignment I was having so much trouble with, it is done now, although I dont think I did everything that was required of me it just felt like too much. Quote:
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I have not idea what a PRE tag is. (Never needed it, don't care.)
But I did spend about 20 minutes have some fun throwing this together real quick: HTML Code:
body { HTML Code:
<html> It's one of my favorite songs (Metallica, Load album, 1996). Songs are poems, too! The lyrics are very dark, like Edgar Allan Poe. I didn't do everything in that assignment, and probably didn't follow directions regarding BR vs PRE. But the CSS and layout of DIVs may help you a bit. I skimped on the HTML head, obviously -- it still works, even if it's not compliant to any standard. I mostly wanted to see what I could do with an allotment of just a short amount of time. I had to find a reaper image, then edit it in Photoshop. I had the wood background already. That took several minutes. Honestly, most of my time was spending editing the lyrics into poem sentence form. I blew through the CSS and HTML in probably 7 minutes, the other 13 were spent on non-code stuff. See how sites can take a while?! A high-end design with fancier graphics, little snazzy CSS quality touches, etc -- lots of time needed. Sometimes seeing basic samples of coding in action is better than any book talking at you. You're visual -- so am I. Quote:
That's not to say you should never use HTML styling (B, I, strikethrough, etc -- for fonts), but that styles are best done via CSS in a separate CSS file(s). For the purpose of learning, it seems HTML styling is taboo for the assignments. (Honestly, I'm fine with that.) If you don't understand some of the above code, ask. :) I'm not some super CSS master, but I've been doing it for at least 3 years. I used CSS prior to that (since maybe 2001) but I now purely work in CSS and PHP-driven HTML now, mostly using CMS of some kind (WordPress, for example). |
Thanks for the example, unfortunately, I cannot get my background image to place, I cant seem to write it in the CSS, I have a jpg file called wave1.jpg on my thumb drive.
Is the top box called html code the CSS? & the bottom with the typed poem the actual html document? I tried copying some of the top html code into my CSS document, & tried replacing some of the items in the code with my items & chosen colors, but nothing takes effect, I just have a plain black text on a white page of my html. I cannot seem to get the CSS affects to work at all. I really regret taking this class, I guess part of finding out what career direction you will take involves finding out what you dont like & what does not work, as well as what is good. thanks for your help, but I am not sure I will ever get this stuff, I am feel like I am fast sinking now, I just hope I can survive & pass this class. Even though I dont think I can do this, I will still ask questions in the hope that something will eventually work. I cant give up although I feel like it now, I am stuck with this class. Edit; After going in circles, I found what I suspected was the problem, my CSS link or reference in my html document was not named right, did not have the same name as my actual CSS file, so everything that I was doing was not linking properly to my CSS file. |
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For reference I have this book on the shelf if I ever do web design*: http://www.amazon.com/CSS-Anthology-...dp/0980576806/ A review of an earlier edition can be found here. *I'm more of a coder then a web designer. Anything I create won't look pretty, but it's functional |
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The CSS is all the layout, and is always in this sort of format: #id{}, .class{} or object{} Quote:
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