What are all the programs that I need to know to be a good and competent web designer/developer?

Question

And how long will it take before I can actually start designing web sites for a fee?

Answer 1

There are quite a few stuff that you need to know.
1) Adobe Photoshop
2) Adobe ColdFusion
3) Adobe Flex 2
4) Adobe Flash
5) Action Script
6) XML
7) Javascript
8) Java
9) XML
10) HTML
11) Adobe Dreamweaver
12) PHP
13) C#
14) CSS
15) ASP
16) ASP .NET
17) VB
18) VB .NET
19) SQL

In response to your question regarding how long it will take for you to start doing web site for a fee, this depends on how quickly you learn the skills. For starter, you can learn HTML and some javascript. Be sure to get some books (especially those with sample exercises) and read them. After reading them, try to do some of those sample exercises to see how well you are doing. This is a good way to gauge how well you have mastered the skills. Once you think you have mastered the basic skills, you can go to those freelance web site and start bidding on some simple projects. Remember to charge for a lower price just so you are more likely you will get the project if your price is low.

By the way, I am a web developer by trade. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Answer 2

Web design and web development have some cross-over points, but you can easily be one OR the other.

Web design can lean towards graphic design or taking someone's design and building a site, but in general i would say it's a bit of both.

For this you would need some html + editor knowledge, photoshop for image editing or fireworks, a program like dreamweaver is good for building the actual site. Javascript is a client-side scripting language that sort of crosses over both areas in its many forms (like Ajax).


For web development, this can be a very broad thing, in general however it implies a server-side solution, to creating more dynamic, and usually larger database-driven sites. In general knowing a scripting language like ASP, .NET, PHP, and learning a bit about databases, like mySql and its language SQL.
All the programs for web development really revolve around these scripting languages, in the form of IDE (integrated development environments). So there's lots of flavors there, it boils down to personal choice.


There's a lot of stuff to learn, but you don't need to learn all of it, look at what you would like to focus on, and work on that.

In my personal case, even though i call myself a web developer, my programming knowledge isn't very strong. So i focus more on design and programming integration, bringing them together. Often i will resort to open-source solutions people have already written, and that do core things...web apps, like drupal, mambo and many others.

Lots of flavors there, and i'd say, if you want to start on the faster road of getting products out there, i'd look at those. Learning any language takes time, and building a good web app is no small feat at the beginning.

Answer 3

To be a good designer (not programmer) you should no
1)Photoshop
2)D/X/HTML
3)Dreamweaver (NOT frontpage - it generates a lot of IE only code)
4)Have ability to use most other programmers on a basic level
5)Understand basics of PHP - to install/upgrade forums and the like.

It can take anywhere between 1 day to 1 year to become a good web designer. It depends on how hard you work at it. I suggust that you start by creating "mock" sites and see what you can do.

Answer 4

- Notepad or Notepad++ (handles CSS/Java/C/C++/HTML/own residing house page). - Photoshop/Gimp for photograph enhancing/scaling Caveat, greater than a number of the human beings who I do internet layout/progression artwork for, view training on various distinctive browsers, at the same time with: IE (6 and better), Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, and Kompozer.

Answer 5

css, html and javascript to start. you'll eventually need to know xml for multiplatorm soltions.

then for more dynamic sites you can use PHP/ASP/Coldfusion

current standards and practices: www.w3.org www.w3.org/wai/

introduction: www.w3schools.com