Web design software/laptop and questions

markfj · 5 December 2016 at 9:21PM

Hi Guys

A couple of questions please

Im considering a laptop, though I have a decent home PC I am looking for a laptop purely to practise web designs, so would have to be capable of running whatever web design programmes that are recommended, if anyone can recommend a laptop or suggest the software that would be great, budget wise, Im not too fussed as some would be a gift and some of my own money too.

I'm considering a career change, and would like to learn and get into web design full time, but have no current skill in it, so i'd be learning from the start. Are there any web designers out there, that mind me asking a few questions please?

Just thought i'd ask on the offchance :beer:

cheers

AndyPix · 6 December 2016 at 9:04AM

Are you wanting to actually code the websites or just use a drag and drop/point and click approach ?

As for the laptop, pretty much anything will be able to run the required software

Feel free to ask any questions, PM me if you like.

Andy

forgotmyname · 6 December 2016 at 9:13AM

Any laptop that can view the internet will also allow you to create one.

Web pages are fairly small and do not consume a ton of memory like video editing etc. So the specs will be fairly low.

onomatopoeia99 · 6 December 2016 at 9:41AM

Anything no more than a few years old should be fine. Ultimately a website is text and you can edit in notepad that comes free with Windows. Better text editors are available (pspad, notepad++, atom, to name three examples) but they are still not at all demanding on the computer.

Some people like WYSIWYG tools (I don't, so have no experience of them).

If you want to design a webpage you will need somewhere to test it out. Most versions of Windows have a built in webserver (IIS) which you can enable via control panel. Setting that up is getting into "IT" rather than "design" though.

markfj · 7 December 2016 at 12:25AM

Thanks for the answers, appreciate he help

Good to know I wont need anything too major laptop wise

Bit confused about the main differences in a web developer and designer. Ive read the differences on various sites, but unsure how you'd go freelance for example if you studied web development but not web design for example or vice versa, how you'd know how to go about creating a visually good looking, yet good functioning website.

I am not sure, but I am guessing learning code is vital really to be good at both, so I guess I'd like to learn coding first off, but also WYSIWYG tools,.

Before leaving school 13 years ago, I was determined to be a chef or work in IT, I chose catering and it seems IT is calling me back

Thanks for the replies, Andy Ill send you a PM, thanks for that.

System · 11 December 2016 at 12:22PM

Hi

Copyright issues apart...

Right mouse click on a webpage, choose View Page Source
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr" lang="en">
<head>

<meta property="fb:app_id" content="362661723751584" />
<meta property="og:title" content=" Web design software/laptop and questions - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Money Saving Expert: Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more" />

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
<META HTTP-equiv="Expires" CONTENT="-1">
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" CONTENT="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> <link rel="image_src" href="http://images2.moneysavingexpert.com/images/template/avatar.gif" />
<meta name="keywords" content=" Web design software/laptop and questions, vbulletin,forum,bbs,discussion,jelsoft,bulletin board,money saving,martin lewis,shopping,save money,insurance,holiday,flight,flight checker,call checker" />
<meta name="description" content=" Web design software/laptop and questions Techie Stuff" />

and you can see examples of code that you might want to "recycle".

The wysiwyg ones will simplify the process, as already mentioned.

Kompozer
BlueGriffon

http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a Heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

markfj · 13 December 2016 at 11:51PM

Thanks for all the replies, Ive only just seen these

I'll look into the above, I have only really used Joomla before, and that's the extent of my knowledge, Id like to learn how to create sites for business in future, looking around wordpress does come up alot.

It would be nice to be able to make a site from sratch one day, or at least know how, ive booked an online course, not sure how good it will be, but its a start at least

Regarding laptops

I know both these are probably more than I'd need, but I want something to be reliable, quick and last. Im considering either of these

http://www.ebuyer.com/760637-hp-250-g5-i5-laptop-x0q78es-x0q78es-abu

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/X556UB-DM262T-ASUS-X556UB-DM262T_1966546.html

The first one doesnt have an optical drive, but not sure that matter, screen display I think im right in saying should be better on the 2nd one, but it is £130 more, if its worth more ill pay for it, but though id ask here

thanks again everyone

forgotmyname · 15 December 2016 at 9:44AM

Copy and pater is the best tool to see what makes a website tick.

Works for me. Find a site with the layout or features your interested in and copy the entire thing and then play around with the settings and remove the stuff that you dont need bit by bit until it stops working.

Zola. · 15 December 2016 at 11:24AM

Dips your toes in first to see if it is really for you. Learn to code HTML and CSS at code academy first and foremost (for free!), without that you will never be a web designer.

Coding is an essential skill.

https://www.codecademy.com/

markfj · 15 December 2016 at 11:40AM

Ive actually started a tut on codecadmey, thanks for that

Is there much difference in the free/paid ones? Several have been recommended but most are monthly paid ones by looks of it.

Im pretty sure ill enjoy it, once i learn it and understand it. By thats why chosing a laptop is hard, if I decide not to continue with this, id still like a decent enough laptop to use if im going to buy one

thanks again

Zola. · 15 December 2016 at 11:59AM

You wont need a very powerful laptop if all you are doing is coding for websites. If it was video or animation, thats a different story.

Once you get proficient in html and css, and can code relatively well, look into the Bootstrap framework.

That will give you responsive design experience right away. Read the documentation a few times. This is an absolutely essential skill to have, as everyone uses mobile devices to access sites now, and you must cater for them, and well.

Once you have a handle on those, look into becoming good at Jquery. A little php knowledge would also help for things like building contact forms, serving dynamic content etc, but thats delving further down the developer path. But it certainly wont hurt to know a bit.

If you can nail the 3 languages I mentioned first, you are on the right path.

Playing about with Wordpress etc is fine, but there will be times you will want to make custom changes that will require code.

You should download some templates and play about with them, experiment, refresh the pages when you make changes, see how it all works.

I think if you start making sites yourself from scratch, you will benefit so much more from it, rather than being a cookie cutter wordpress guy that doesn't know how to code properly.

Web design software/laptop and questions

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