Looking to learn HTML formatting

Could you please include some advice and free resources for a absolute beginner ? I dont want to do software, just basic web design, and I have absolutely no ideea where to start. I would like to do it in a text editor, like the big boys, but i want some sort of plugin or something that would auto-complete the basic commands and automatically end the </body> tags and the like.

But first, do tell me, I am 36 years old, is it too late to learn webdesign ? And I cant draw a straight line, not even in Paint.net.... Should I forger about the whole thing ?

wamphyr_sl said:

Could you please include some advice and free resources for a absolute beginner ? I dont want to do software, just basic web design, and I have absolutely no ideea where to start. I would like to do it in a text editor, like the big boys, but i want some sort of plugin or something that would auto-complete the basic commands and automatically end the </body> tags and the like.

But first, do tell me, I am 36 years old, is it too late to learn webdesign ? And I cant draw a straight line, not even in Paint.net.... Should I forger about the whole thing ?

Click to expand...

Yes you are too old to write code. You will never ever learn.... just kidding! The big plug html plugin developers relied on in the past was Zen, but that was discontinued. Now people use Emmet which is much better. It has short cuts for scaffolding and also has auto completion just like Zen but with a host of other more complex behavoirs. So to create a basic html 5 scaffold you would type "html:5" then hit control + e on your keyboard and you will magically have a basic html 5 ready page.

Emmet - the essential toolkit for web-developers

Emmet does look pretty sweet.

If you have a PC you really can't go wrong with Visual Studio. Express edition is free and it has Intellisense for HTML and Javascript.

wamphyr_sl said:

Could you please include some advice and free resources for a absolute beginner ? I dont want to do software, just basic web design, and I have absolutely no ideea where to start. I would like to do it in a text editor, like the big boys, but i want some sort of plugin or something that would auto-complete the basic commands and automatically end the </body> tags and the like.

But first, do tell me, I am 36 years old, is it too late to learn webdesign ? And I cant draw a straight line, not even in Paint.net.... Should I forger about the whole thing ?

Click to expand...

Codecademyhas an HTML/CSS module. HTML/CSS is pretty easy to learn, so you could probably get through it in a weekend and you can build a website just off that. If you want you can do the javascript/jquery or php, or the various other links in this thread which lets you do a lot more things.

I'm not sure on the editor. I use Vim, which can do autocompletion/snippets, but it is really confusing editor to use if you're not used to it.

Use Codecademy to learn and then use Sublime Text 2/3 + Emmet plugin.

In regards to Codeacademy, its a good starter, but many people find themselves trying to "win" Codeacademy and often will miss fundamentals or overlook things. Just be aware.

One thing I really liked about Codecademy, at least with the jQuery exercises that I ran through, is that the last "project" was to create my own jQuery application. I honestly was pretty challenged and had to go back and review some of the exercises, but I finished by building a pretty functional slideshow type thing. I thought the course itself was incredibly informational.

I can see how people could get caught up in the badges and try to make it a competition, though. Mostly I just got addicted and tried to keep my streak alive, coding something new every day.

Celestein_sl said:

I generally find people avoid VS unless explicitly using .net. And .net for backends of websites is, I wouldn't say rare exactly, because it's not, but you almost never see it outside of "Microsoft House" businesses, who just use MS for everything as policy.

MS stacks are basically in their own bubble. I honestly never see people using VS anywhere else frequently.

Click to expand...

Seen plenty of Microsoft stack companies... mine was prior to being acquired. That said, the only thing I really liked about .NET is Visual Studio. No IDE is ANYWHERE close to being as usable as Visual Studio 2010... 2012 is an abortion though.