Web design

As a rank amateur to this field, I am daunted by the task of designing with so many formats currently available. I've listened to persons throwing around abbreviations and have nodded more as a means of having them continue the conversation with the hopes of hearing a word that I recognise. what happened to old fashioned HTML? Now there is XHTML, PHP, CSS, Java, CGI, etc... Where do I start?

Back in the day I used to do some HTML coding and built my own site... actually built two sites. One was hosted by WOW and the other was the regular freebee site, geocities. That one never went far and so I concentrated on WOW only for them to sign deals with porn sites and put porn links on my site. It had to go.

Since then I found the Intranet.com and did up one for pan. They started charging after we used them for over a year (Brinkster's pre-cursor). Then I only designed in my head. Time was against me and I was running out of freeness to capitalise upon. I had all sorts of site builders to assist me; Hotdog by Sausage software was my favourite...I wonder why?!

Now I want to work on the pan website but my main project is the bashmentbasses website. I still have to register the Domain but in time. I got Dreamweaver 2years ago and recently got the update but it popped open so many windows I stared at it for 5 min and closed a few and then closed a few more and then....closed the program. I'm gonna need something a tad bit simpler. I'm not trying to make a living off this, I'm just trying to avoid paying someone else to do something that is a passing fancy. When I am in a position to do a proper one then I'll pay for it.

So I decided to be of some use and check out auhtoring tools for CSS. I found a great many options. The really good ones (determined by their demo screen shots) are mainly for Mac OS. Bummer!! I managed to download Cascade DTP v4 and StyleMaster v3.5 (v4 was released May 3rd but they want money for it... lol... I don't swing that way son, plus the crack hasn't been released yet so I opted for the version with the last available crack).

Cascade DTP was better than Dreamweaver when I opened it, but....... again I wasn't sure what I was doing. I had to go back on-line and look at some more resources to see what it is I ought to be working towards. Stylemaster's home site had some nice explanations and screen shots and I was able to get a better understanding. I started the program and its wizard was very nice. Time was against me so I didn't do much with it but was able to make a start.

And so a journey begins. How fast I work will depend on too many factors to list, but work I shall. Wish me well.