Starting a Web Site

Starting a web site from scratch is challenging, but there are countless resources on the web that can help you along your journey.

First, you have to decide how you'll build your site.

As for my style, I prefer table-less design (except for legitimate table use) with HTML and CSS, and hard-coding the site from scratch. While tables can be useful for layout, that was not their intended use. Additionally, they're older, much slower, and less browser-friendly than a well-written CSS stylesheet. Good HTML and CSS are hard to beat.

Once you've decided how to go about making your site, you need the right tools to do it.

Although one could write a fully-functional site in Notepad, I recommend Adobe Dreamweaver for your HTML and CSS needs. Another alternative is to use another HTML editor like CoffeeCup and write your CSS in a simple text editor.

For graphics, I'll be using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, two must-haves that will give your site some eye-candy pizazz (thanks UConn!)

Here are some sources that have helped me refine my eye for design and strengthen my coding skills, as well as some reviews of Kodi's recommended sites.

• Illustrator and Dreamweaver tutorials from talented Toronto designer Nick La's N.Design Studio.

W3Schools taught me HTML and CSS. It can teach anyone just about any web language.

About.com's article explains why using CSS beats using tables for layout.

CSS Zen Garden is a cool site where users edit the CSS only -- not the HTML -- to create many visions of the same content.

Mozilla's Web Developer toolbar for Firefox is a must-have for designers who want to check out the CSS layouts of their sites and others!

Is navigation useful? Of course. But I don't agree that all pages can't share a navbar in a small site.

Mindy McAdams' site has some good stuff about design, color, and CSS layout.

There must be some good design tutorials in here somewhere, although some of the designer's own pages that I checked out were terrible looking!

UConn UITS Web Development site has some cool visual design and flash effects. However, some of their table elements and CSS divs don't line up -- for shame!