My favourite places to learn
This entry was posted on October 20, 2007
I never would have admitted this in school, but since I haven’t been in school for over two years, I feel the time is now right to let out my secret. I love to learn.
I especially love to learn about web design and development. I believe when it comes to this area, you’re never ‘done’ learning. There’s always new ways to expand your knowledge and skills, whether it be picking up something like AJAX, or simply understanding why CSS-based layouts are better than table-based ones.
One of my favourite places to learn is the W3Schools website. This is an invaluable reference when it comes to all things HTML and CSS. It also covers PHP, mySQL, XML and more. I find myself constantly referring to it in those times when my head is blocked and I can’t think what I should be doing. The only downfall is that their examples aren’t always the clearest, and there’s a few too many adverts.
Another place I recommend is Tizag. Whilst not covering as many areas as W3Schools, Tizag does go into greater detail and I find their examples easier to understand. Again, like W3Schools, it is ad-supported. Tizag also has numerous templates for sale (so if you don’t learn from their tutorials, you can skip them and just buy the templates).
My third and final favourite place to learn online is Tutorialtastic. This tutorial site is owned and run by Jem, and is full of little gems (no pun intended). Whilst perhaps not suitable for the complete novice, Tutorialtastic does have indepth tutorials on more advanced things such as creating and updating mySQL databases. What I like so much about this site is that not only does it teach you theory, it also shows you how to put that theory to use.
Where are your favourite places to learn online?
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Make a website for free #3
This entry was posted on October 16, 2007
In the second part to this series I covered online generators. Lil suggested I cover Content Management Systems (CMS) in this next part, so here goes!
This little gem of a blogging engine has been written from scratch and recently revamped by a lovely young lady by the name of Jenny. Using PHP and a mySQL database, Jenny gives you the ability to add posts to different categories, offer your visitors the ability to comment on your blog entries, an RSS feed (for comments and for entries), an optional comment captcha to help prevent spam, and a basic WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor.
Wordpress is what I like to call the “Grand-Daddy” of content management systems. Not only does it let you blog, it also lets you add static pages to your site which is where the real “content management” comes in. FanUpdate is more of a “blogging engine” as it controls only your blog entries. Wordpress goes the full hog and gives you everything you could need! It’s free and comes with a massive long list of plugins you can use to give your site even more functionality. It really is the “bees knees”.
I used FanUpdate for over six months before making the switch to Wordpress. FanUpdate is a wonderful script and I would recommend it to everyone who likes to have total control over their static pages and layout, as it is so easy to integrate to your current design.
I switched to Wordpress because I liked how easy it made things to update my site and add new pages. A few code snippets in the theme, a few code snippets there and I had complete lists and links to my sub-pages.
Making your existing layout fit around Wordpress, however, is easier said than done! Wordpress “themes” are very dynamic in that once your layout is made up of various “template tags” which add the content dynamically from the mySQL database everything is stored in. Fascinating stuff really, if you’re so inclined as to be interested in the back-end workings of your site.
There are of course hundreds and hundreds of free Content Management Systems out there - which one do you use?
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Pictures that remind me of me #1
This entry was posted on October 15, 2007
Many a time on my “link-surfing”, I come across pictures that remind me of myself. I thought it might be nice to share them with you…
