Advice Needed

[Wagara]

My current job is titled PC Technician but is very varied as far as duties are concerned. I've been with this company for 24 years and am 44. More than half of my life, if you can believe it! This is probably a strange place to post this but this is the only forum I read regularly even tho I don't post often. I feel like I know so many of you from reading you and while this may not be everyone's area of expertise, I hope there is someone here that can give me some sound advice.

I work with T1 lines, ISDNs and marathons in a very indirect way, as in doing whatever anyone tells me to do. I handle the upkeep of about 100 PC's as well as a Spectrum 24 RF system. I manage our printer maintaince and upgrade as well as our phone system. I'm fit the description of "jack of all, master of none" to a T. I'm a great "researcher" for the company as far as the internet goes and have put together a couple of messageboards together with EZboard.

Most of my job is physical and that's my problem. After a couple of years of ongoing problems, I've been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and need to look at my future a lot more closely than I have. I don't see my mobility getting better in the years ahead and need a way to protect myself financially. I also can't continue to crawl under desks.

I'd like to learn how to design web pages. I think this is something I could do, and enjoy doing, even if mobility becomes an issue. The problem is I know nothing about what's best, what's most current to learn, what's the best basic tutorial, etc. I can get my employeer to pay at least half of the cost of a 'start to finish' program but I need some direction in what's the best etc.

Sometimes the internet is too big. There seems to be too much information for me to grasp. Any suggestions/comments/ideas? Thanks for reading this!

[NooNoo]

OK Wagara, I think Mayet will back me up on this...

You start with notepad.exe and learn HTML - from there you add jscript, php, asp etc
then move on to flash, dreamweaver and so on.

Any good webpage authoring course will have all of these elements - go on a course, you will be surprised how much you will enjoy being given targets rather than trying to set them yourself. The course should also cover (maybe a separate unit though) setting up a webserver with apache or with iis.

My other piece of advice is, don't take an evening course... you are already tired and not thinking straight. Try and get your employer to spring for a part time day course.

[Mayet]

Yes it is best to learn in html /notepad first, then when you move on to a gui program like dreamweaver or front page you have the coding basics down pat so then you can edit your code easily.

Site such as html goodies and others give html tutorials which give you a basic grasp on code.

http://www.internet.computertechnicalcentre.com/htmlpage.htm
there are some html links on that page which i made last year. hopefully all the links still work, i haven't checked them recently.

If you have any specific questions or are stuck on anything feel free to pm me and I will assist.

The only important thing when starting is that you call the main page index.html the rest of the pages can be htm but the index/main page needs to be html to display correctly.

w3 validator checks your code which is a great help.

[jaeger]

Luckily for you, HTML is the easiest of the programming languages to learn. The basics of it can be grasped in a few minutes and from then on, all you are doing is remembering tags and properties.

However, HTML alone isn't good enough for web design and hasn't been for several years. If you seriously intend on getting into this, you will pick up at least two, and maybe as many as seven other programming languages in the process. You will also have to be able to do graphics work and in general have a good eye for design.

I assume South Carolina, so you probably want to look into classes at the local community college if you want hands-on instruction. If you work better self paced, you can try hitting up a used textbook store and picking up some instructional materials on the cheap.

[confus-ed]

..fit the description of "jack of all, master of none" to a T.. Any suggestions/comments/ideas?..

Are you me ? :D .. I'm just sat wondering why if you describe yourself like that you picked authoring web pages ? - its like 'the poor man of tech' - many (& this isn't necessarilly my opinion !!! please note ! ;)) might say 'full of 1/2 arsed techs who couldn't cut it, & failed graphic designers' :eek2: :devil: - so I'm wondering if this is the only direction you've thought about ?

If you do have a range of IT skills mightn't you be better getting yourself some more general IT qualification & perhaps thinking about another place to work or a less hands on role with the company you are at ? (obviously I/we aren't privvy to your circumstances to gauge this & probably your 'choice' indicates something, but me being me I'm not certain what ;))

[ilovetheusers]

Given the large number of webdesigners out of work, my $.02 is to stay away from this profession and look into a different sector of working with computers. Get your MCSE and work with servers or get on board the Cisco train with a CCNA or something. Not trying to take the wind out of your sails, I just know a lot of folks who are webdesigners that can do things that are amazing and few of them have jobs doing what that are trained at.

[Cleetus]

Yeah, the only guys I know that are doing well with anything web related also are very heavily into database stuff or porn

[Mayet]

There is still a large market for talented designers. I just don't like the same old boring template sites. I like to see a well thought out interesting page.

You do need to do more than html now in order to make the site build interactive . The problem is that every man and his dog "can build web pages' but theres more to it than that including being able to optimise the page and having writing skill as well as the asp, php and java additions.

Skilled designers will always be in demand and it is enjoyable when working as a tech to be able to create pages. Its using the other half of the brain than the heavy thinking used in tech work.

[GeekMom]

I agree with starting with Notepad to learn the HTML language. Once you learn the basics, integrate the other web languages.

I have some very imformative links for html coding. While I want to try it out, I just don't have the time right now :) Let me know if you would like the links.

GeekMom

[geeksRus]

mayet and geekmom are rite...its easy to grab a template and use it or design a simple layout. start with HTML and add CSS a little at a time. for inspiration and to see what can be done check THIS (http://www.csszengarden.com/) site. no template sites here. the links on the rite show different sites using the same content with only changing the style sheet.