UKH

Hello,  

Thanks for any time you can give me.

Could anyone tell me the best ways to learn HTML please?  Is it worth getting a book or is it best to look for an accredited course or both, and if so any ideas on the best recognised courses please?  

I googled this and was immediately hit with the adverts but if you think i should dig in and do the research just say so.  I would prefer an impartial and honest answer so I suppose the hive brain in the UKC forums is better than Google!!

Thanks again,  Bill

I taught myself the basics with a book from the 'for dummies' series but that was for my own amusement rather than for work, and several years ago.

To what standard?

You can start writing html with notepad or other editor. Then open it in a browser. Its easy enough to jump straight in and start seeing results in a few mins.

If you've been asked to write an entire website, there are companies that will provide the tools for free: e.g. wordpress. Many hosting companies will register a domain for you, host it and provide some basic web page creation package.

Thanks Doug, looks like credentials are in the work produced rather than a certificate so I don’t think it’s crucial. 
was it easy?

What about code academy? Either way, as mentioned, you need to think about what you are going to be doing with it really.

W3schools is free to go through their html, css and java script courses. 

A cheap way of seeing if you have the knack.

What's your background and what is the plan with the html.  The distance now from playing around to commercial development is quite large now. Not to put you off, but there are more skills required to do it professionally 

Thanks I’d like to create a standard that will help or get work but I’ve never worked in IT. 

From what you say it sounds simple but I’m guessing it’s a question of being efficient with time and maybe it’s just one of a few things that should be learnt in web design... CSS, design and styles, how to use pictures, the legal side of it and taste!!

Thanks Dave I will look at W3schools I don’t have an IT background I thought I could work in web design or have it to help me to get work in IT.
 

Everything from teaching to well I have no idea but I work hard and am willing to learn.

Thanks I get the impression that it’s something that’ll be an additional skill to help with getting work rather than a focus?

+1 for Code academy and W3 schools.

Being a web developer, is somewhat different form being able to write html.

Learning basic html, is easy. From what you've written it looks like you're more interested in the user interface (UI) side of things. The UI, generally, has to talk to a back end. Once you start getting into css, database back ends, java, php etc, it becomes way more complex.

It will probably take you more that a weekend or two to get up to speed!

The good news is that you can run all of these applications for free on a linux box. If you don't have a linux box, you can install one in a virtual machine such as virtual box, so you don't need dedicated hardware. Get up to speed on linux and additional doors open up for you. Web dev, operations engineer, systems engineer, database admin, dev ops, etc, etc.

These days I'd say anyone who needs to ask is probably better off not bothering. HTML isn't difficult but there's tools out there which will very likely do a better job much more quickly than you will.

If it's part of some longer term plan to be a frontend dev then I'd concentrate on learning React or something similar and picking up HTML as you go. I don't envy you, this is a confusing time to get into the industry.

If you want to be a web designer then I'd focus on your design skills and platforms like zeplin/sletch/invision and your understanding of composable design, user testing etc.  Anywhere interesting you're unlikely to be writing code.

or a mac box, or a windows box... 99% of the time.

Yup. You can install virtual box or similar on any one of those platforms and then install linux (unix). A Mac is just a BSD (unix) box, with a nice gui. But nobody wants to run windows by choice

The best trick that microsoft ever played was convincing the world that uinx didn't exist. (Then spending the next 40 odd years copying its features, badly. )

That's nice dear but there's absolutely no reason for the OP to give a stuff about all that.

If your are interested in the coding side.. Consider also looking at learning python programming and then something like Django instead of simply learning html. 

Or look at one of the content management systems and learn to use that. Learn to design interesting looking sites with graphic design skills.. That's the other side.. 

Html is a start, but it won't be enough to be commercially interesting to an employer by itself. It is often one of the range of skills/products required. 

So, do start, but there will be other things to learn along the way. 

Dread-I thanks that explains a lot. I will look into Linux and creating a Virtual Box. Sounds cool. 

Hi Dave both sound really interesting.  As with most jobs looks like it’s good to have a couple of skills. I think everyone loves design but I’m guessing coding can be just as satisfying. 
Thanks for your advice. 

No I’m happy to learn and everyone has a right to an opinion 👍👍

Depends on the money. I need to earn £25k pa to keep the family happy and me climbing... in that order. 
Guess I look at sites and like their concepts but anything IT. Working from home would be perfect.

25k is either a reasonable salary for a recent graduate with multiple skills, or a non graduate with several years of experience in most places in the UK. London is an exception.

Look at the skills required for jobs that use html on the cwjobs salary checker

If it's work you are after them you might want to spend time getting to a competent level of skill in using content management  systems,  WordPress for example.  Using such a tool and the plugins that are available to add functionality is the simplest way to develop websites.  Templates can also handle all of the user interface manipulation required these days for sites to be accessible on a range of devices. You can download and setup an installation in your own computer to try things out,  but you might need to wrestle with concepts of Web servers and databases to get it working.  Is not straight forward and some things just won't make sense to you unless you have reasonable understanding of computing to start with.  

Hope that helps.

You could just as easily install Linux as a secondary boot on a Windows PC; decide whether to boot into Windows or Linux at boot time. No need for a virtual machine.

My advice is that if you want to get into the web industry, then you look at something like wordpress (wordpress.org, not wordpress.com - different beasts), and you make up for your lack of coding skills with photography skills. I suspect you will get more bang for your buck with an unchanged template full of high quality photos (bokeh!), than a customized template with lacklustre photos. Consider targeting a niche (e.g. websites for local businesses, websites for certain categories of business such as landscapers, plumbers, personal CV websites with a .my domain, etc).

You can probably expect many months of weekends/evenings learning to reach the lowest rung (static websites) of current commercial website development.

Please don't do this. As long time web developer I'm shocked by React/Javascript developers who can't do basic HTML, to the extent that websites these days have such awful HTML that they are not accessible to a lot of user with sight problems or other physical problems.  I interview a lot of developers and most of them don't know basic HTML but they know everything about React.

If I was learning these days I'd start with HTML and CSS, though mastering CSS is really hard.  Learning Javascript is again hard but rather than just learn a framework learn Javascript first.   However most jobs require some/ a lot of Javascript, I am primary working as a Javascript dev these days.

As Lemony has said it is a confusing time to get into the industry there is a lot of learn, but as others have pointed out there are a lot online courses exist.

My old bosses boyfriend did the same thing a few years ago, taught himself and after 3 years was good enough to work as contractor at the BBC earning a princely sum each day, so good luck it is possible with hard work

You can and many do. However, there is a lot that can go wrong installing onto a second partition for the unwary. Nuking the wrong partition or screwing up the boot loader would entail a steep learning curve if you wanted your data back.

With a vm system, you can install or clone a working machine. You can have different machines for different uses e.g. a db server and a web server. All running at the same time over a local network on your own laptop. You also wont run the risk of making your machine unbootable.

NB: I'm somewhat annoyed that I didn't manage to fan the flames of the windows versus Linux religious war.

The standard book (well, it was 15 years ago, when I was learning it) is 'HTML for the World Wide Web' by Elizabeth Castro. A very clear standard reference work. 

That's a fair comment. Provided you've got the system resources.

If you're going to muck around with your primary disk, you'd better have a decent disk image backup before you start busing something like Macrium. But you'd have that anyway, right, as part of a normal system recovery regime...?

IMO Free Code Camp is good. As others have said HTML is the basics that you built upon and Free Code Camp does that. 

If you want this to lead to a job then one thing to keep in mind when learning (or deciding what to learn) is what languages/frameworks/tools do the companies near you use (unless you’re willing to relocate)? Learning React probably isn’t going to help you get a job if companies near you use Wordpress and jQuery. 

You might find this useful when deciding what to learn https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap/blob/master/images/front...

RE Windows/Linux/Mac - you can develop on any of them, but IMO installing tools is often easier on Linux/Mac. Probably the easiest way to try Linux on Windows is to install Ubuntu WSL through the Windows store. 

Good enough to contract? So he could tie his own shoes and add up his hours correctly?

/mostly deals with contractors who can't

Lots of well-meaning advice but I think it can easily be confusing. I think rather than focusing on a particular discipline, try to think about how you're going to get your experience. The caveat with the following advice is that my experience is a generation out of date.

I had the good fortune to get into the industry in the mid 90s. I learnt HTML in 95 after Netscape (the first graphical web browser) came out and there were no books and precious little online info. I simply viewed source, and wrote HTML by hand in text editors.

However HTML was very simple then - basically a structural markup language for academics and most advanced display formatting had to be done with hacks but that was part of the fun. It's much more involved and heavier now. However there's many more resources.

I did a paid internship at a web agency in the late 90s and learned so much more working with others. That got me into the industry (I've long since moved on through project management, tech lead and now I'm more on the marketing side). 

IMHO a few things to consider:

• You want to earn 25k - is this your motivation? I think in any career if you're just doing it for the money you'll find it extremely hard. I got into the career because I loved working it all out, solving problems and being part of the first wave of website development and 'doing cool stuff'. 
• Don't take this the wrong way (just being illustrative) but I got to 25k within about 18 months in the industry (admittedly in the south) but I think I was in the right place at the right time. Competition from offshored work and a larger cohort of graduate developer have probably depressed wages. I think your 25k goal should be realistic but this is no longer an industry to get into to get rich quick.
• I know it's confusing but dive in with web resources and see how you get on. As already mentioned if you're going down the accredited course route then consider a front end web developer - there's a few out there. However something more structured like OpenClassrooms might help give you the path you need. There's a Junior Web Developer path here and they do cheaper options for subscription so you can see if its for you. https://openclassrooms.com/en/paths/141-junior-web-developer
• Basically don't underestimate the value of experience and interaction with other developers. You get better by not being the smartest person in the room and continually pushing yourself - so sign up to a few user groups, there might be something in your area who I'm sure would be happy to have you along if you show an enthusiastic attitude and do a bit of groundwork.
• You mention working from home. I think that sounds great in principal but I'd advise against it if you're just getting into the industry. Again I'm biased but being in development hothouse environment will push you much further than working from home. I've worked from home for the last 6 years (not as a developer) and although it has suited me it's only been possible by traveling every couple of weeks as well. I would try to get some experience in an office first where you can experience first hand other developers working on and solving problems.
• Coming back to my first point - do you really want to do this or do you just see it as a path to a good job? Programming, even HTML, isn't for everyone although that's not to say you can't learn. But would you be motivated to do it day in day out? It can be frustrating as hell, especially when you're up against a deadline and sometimes it can just be monotonous and boring. The giveaway is that pretty much every developer I've ever know codes for fun in their spare time too. 

Whatever you choose, good luck with the future. I never expected to end up where I have but getting into the industry when I did took me on a great ride with a couple of booms and a couple of busts but ultimately I continued to learn specific technical skills, and wider, softer skills that took me in different direction and made some great friends along the way.

Sage advice in that last post ^

Before you go away and try and learn a language or technology someone here has mentioned, I would recommend taking a step back, and considering possible career paths, and possible in-roads to the IT industry. Anyway, here is my 2p, in no particular order:

• If you are interested in front end development, first of all, get a solid grounding in the basics of html, css, and javascript. Make a few static websites. Learn about web accessibility. Learn how to use your developer tools. Learn how to debug and troubleshoot problems. Avoid copying and pasting code from someone's stackoverflow post, and if you do, at least take the time to understand it!
• Learn about the history of the internet, up to the modern day. Get an overview understanding of technological changes, what the most popular technologies are out there, and what they are used for. A good way is to watch Youtube videos - but don't take any as the gospel, and read the comments sections. Like the likes on here, they are generally good at calling out bullshit.
• Gain an understanding of other supporting technologies web developers use. Version control (most popular being GIT) is a good place to start, and a very handy tool indeed. Make a Github account, (which could act as a portfolio when applying for a job), and learn how to use it.
• I wouldn't bother using books. Anything you borrow from the library will be out of date. Other books may be awful biased polemics like this one: http://www.truthabouthtml5.com/. FreeCodeCamp is a pretty good resource, with structured learning materials. I prefer MDN (Mozilla docs) over W3 schools, as it gives much better context, and more granular detail.
• Consider going on an in-person course (not over the internet), after you have learnt some of the basics (and wish to continue!). You can learn at a much faster pace by interacting and problem solving with other people, than on your own, and have a lot more fun too. Not sure where you are located, but if you are in, or near London, I can definitely vouch for this: https://www.foundersandcoders.com/. Far more useful than my degree course!
• When you are ready to do so, look for a job in which your learning is supported, and in which you have time available to learn, and broaden your skillset. Working remotely generally isn't too conducive to this, although good screen sharing helps iron out some of the ambiguities in communication, it is rarely as effective as working through a problem with another developer, in person.
• Possibly a more personal note here, but if you are considering setting yourself up as a freelancer, probably just don't. Competing with the likes of Wix, and going for jobs through Upwork is entering a whole word of pain and underpayment. Better to go with my previous point.

As others have suggested there are many other methods. If you really want to learn html and css then I found this tutorial (using Brackets) very good. He also does other tutorials, such as JavaScript.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aYSgpR5VGPM&t=11s

Sidestepping the issue of exactly what you should learn since you're getting lots of advice you'll have to sift through on that. I'd put your original question back to you, how do *you* learn best?

Some people love books and unstructured tinkering, others can work through an online course, others need human interaction manage frustration and maintain motivation when issues arise. Pick the option that best suits your style and means.

jk

Codepen is pretty awesome to visualise what's happening with the HTML and CSS. You'll probably want to minimise the JavaScript window while you learn what HTML does what.

Here's a basic example: https://codepen.io/matthiasmeier/pen/FGyhB?editors=1100#0

All very stimulating - to have responses talk of platforms, O/S, and add-ons but also confusing. Why not jump in and create some basic screens - play with colors, text, frames and see how it feels - all you need is a starter/reference book and with so many web resources available; it can be satisfying to know the nuts and bolts without some appli s/w doing it all for you.

The difficulty thereafter comes with the many different standards available  - screen sizes, browsers, mobile etc - for commercial development. But creating stuff for your home computer/browser is simple and a good place to start.