This probably isn't the right board for this question, but it was the most suitable out of the ones I could see... I'm buying a birthday pressie for someone and they are keen to develop a website (they are an artist and they want to increase their website presence). They know their way around a PC in hardware terms and some software (particularly the artie stuff - still and moving image). They want a book that will help the design this website. I've had a look at Amazon and other similar sites and there seem to be millions of books of this subject out there. The Dummies guides etc are way too simple in my opinion, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions (or knew of any established good first texts) to pick up? Thanks
best way to learn.. have him design the site on paper- have ideas down.. then make them a reality using html and php- practically anything ever dreamed is already written he can look up the php commands at tiztag- http://www.tizag.com/phpT/ have him install php and get it working on a webserver (this maybe too much for him right now, but doing this gives a much deeper understanding of what's going on under the hood).. or he can jump right in and use a free webhost that runs php to bust his balls http://byethost.com/ have him write something simple in php.. results always get people happy and inspire them instead of reading a bunch of crap or using a webbuilder Code: <?php // my first php script echo 'omg I am now 90% better than every webbuilder user out there!'; ?> have him type that into notepad and save as firstscript.php, upload the file to the webserver using filezilla http://filezilla-project.org/ (best to learn how to use ftp) or using the web based file manager provided by the isp host, or simply copying the file over to the webserver's http root - now direct the browser to http://mywebservernamehere.com/firstscript.php and see the output that's created (assuming php is setup correctly) I know skipping ahead of html.. but that will come.. once you understand how things work on this level the rest is just learning and making tables in any editor like dreamweaver.. I believe when skip the builders and editors, just go strait notepad and understand how to get files on the server, the rest is much easier to grasp there's tons of people on webbuilders and they couldn't tell you anything beyond fill in the blanks.. it's not the way to go if you want to make anything beyond a template hope it helps
Honestly the best place for the vast majority of website stuff would be w3schools. They have pretty much everything and as they set the web standards you know its always up to date. It's a great website and I'm sure it'll help you friend a lot, just a shame you can't gift wrap it
