hey everyone i really want to learn HTML for my knowledge really and to build some kind of a website. I DONT want to use something like "dreamweaver" maybe a utility to do small things but not the whole website! im having a tough time so im thinking about order a book on html, does anyone have an recommendations? i was thinking about this one(http://cgi.ebay.com/HTML-for-the-Wor...d=p3286.c0.m14), is it outdated or would using its info compare to websites today? alright thanks.

p.s. any good read ups would be nice to like how to implement javascript and all that fun stuff. thanks.

What development software do you have? If you have MS Office, MS Publisher has excellent templates I have used for creating websites (I have created 3 so far and it was very easy. Never any training and the first time doing it. As for the book on e-bay, for the price, you can't go wrong. Even if it's outdated, you'll learn the principle and come up with your own ideas from there. You can also try downloading the following,
http://portableapps.com/apps/development/nvu_portable

hey thanks for the reply.... im just using notepad. i wanted to learn how to start from scratch. thanks for the link ill check it out.

Ooh! If you're using notepad, try the nvu_portable, it will be much better for html code.
Being a portable program, it won't slow your system down at all, you can install it and run it from your flash drive

sweet thanks... i think i may order the book as well. i checked out nvu and i like how it highlights all the groups and everything. thanks.

Right now I am using NVU. It is great!!! Also checkout this tutorial: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/we....htm/printable, and also this one http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_css.asp

yeah i have been lurking in the w3schools one alot but that how stuff works one looks pretty handy to. thanks guys.

I have never used NVU, so I cannot give you any personal experience with it, but every programmer is different and does things differently.

I am not a fan of dreamweaver either, it's too bossy. I use Crimson Editor personally. It has support for many languages and the syntax highlighting is great. I could never code using just notepad, only for batch files or xml sheets or something.

As far as the book recommendation, Google search the 'Sams Teach Yourself' series of books. I learned most of my PHP and MySQL from those books. They have them on Amazon and in your local bookstore (Borders, Barnes * Oble etc.)

You can also try the 24 hour html cafe. The site has alot of information I read in one of my HTML books so I kinda wished I found the site earlier. I say start there, and if you want more, go on ahead and purchase a book because personally I can't learn a programming language through the internet. I need a book and my text editor.

You will learn the basics of html, which will then lead you to creating dynamic, stylish, and pretty awesome web pages.

Good Luck!

Let me outline the topic:

• HTML is what we send to the browser and should be the CONTENT only which can be created anyway you please and then add the HTML tags to create the various parts of what the browser sees; eg head, body, title, paragraphs.
• CSS is the PRESENTATION and layout control; which fonts, colors, and locations for specific paragraphs or even just words. Once the HTML is available, we just add class="xyz" to an element to make it behave to the css by that name
• The Javascript stuff is for special controls inside the browser, usually related to controlling FORMS. This is also known as Dynamic HTML (as you can also create html on-the-fly).
  These are the interface to the webserver CGI processing and it saves the user a lot of pain if the required fields are verified in the browser instead of going round trip to only get back 'field xxx is required'. You can also ensure that field2 is correct for the value provided in field1

Here's some fun;
1) use the browser Save AS ... and set the format to "text with line breaks" and name the file whatever.txt
That file will contain ONLY the text of every paragraph. You can then play with adding html tags and SAVE AS using whatever.html and your browser can present your edited file.

2) create a CSS file whatever.css and and add
inside your < head > < / head > section of html
and you can test without a webserver directly on your PC

yeah i kind of feel the same way about the interent.... it seems internet you get bits and pieces of usefull information but out of order. book typically start from the beginning and build up so your not confused on more advance things whithout knowing the basics. ill check out that html cafe though seems really useful, yeah im definately using some kind of program that highlights the syntax, so much more organized than notepad.
thanks for everything everyone.