Joe Gillespie
Posts: 528

I know some people are quite happy to just browse the messages but please, feel free to introduce yourself to the forum. Say where you are from and what your interests are. If you have any special skills knowledge that you are prepared to share with other members, say so.

If you are completely new to this game and are nervous of posting, don't be. You don't have to apologise for asking 'dumb questions'. Everybody has to learn at some time and some things you can only learn by aking questions. I can't gurantee that you will always get the answer, but it does no harm to try.

Mrblack
Posts: 40

Where would you like this posts posted?  Perhaps an introductions forum?

Joe Gillespie
Posts: 528

I think that here, under New Members is as good a place as any. Just reply to this post.

Crumpet
Posts: 11

Okay, I'll go first.  Warning: life story ahead.

My name is Crumpet (well, not really, but most of my friends call me that anyway ), I live in Melbourne, Australia, and I'll be turning 25 years old in exactly one week.  I live with my partner, our two pups (Stella and Henry -- Stella is in my avatar) and a housemate.

After finishing high school in the country I somehow managed to get myself into a university Create Advertising course without actually knowing anything about advertising.  So I moved to Melbourne and decided I wanted to be an art director.  I studied art direction all the way though my course, got fantastic marks, then somehow ended up as a copywriter when I received the award for being the top copywriting student in my year level (this isn't always evident in my posts, btw!) -- quite amusing, when you realise that I had to look up the word "copywriting" in the dictionary before my first ever class...

Anyway, after uni I was employed as a copywriter at a large advertising agency and worked there for three years.  By the end I hated it.  I never quite realised how much I really, really hate most ads.  Anyway, the account I worked on moved to another agency, so about fifty of us were retrenched.  Because I didn't want to work in advertising anymore, I was unemployed for about four months before moving across the country to the Northern Territory.  I worked in a remote Aboriginal community in NT as a literacy and numeracy tutor at the local school (my sister is a teacher there and I lived with her) for five months before returning to Melbourne.  I loved it, but missed my partner and dogs.  Plus remoteness, 40 degree celcius heat every day, cockroach infestations and a 16kb phone line internet connection can wear you down after a while...

So now I'm unemployed again, sort of.  I do casual work as a tutor, but I'm also developing the small business I registered about two years ago when extremely frustrated with my advertising job.  As well as creating and selling fine art, I love "crafts".  I make one-of-a-kind bags and accessories now, and will be expanding on that in the future.  I'm currently redesigning my site to include these things.

I first started my website about three years ago, I think.  I knew nothing about anything, just that I wanted to learn how.  As with most first sites, mine was hosted on free web space and was pretty awful.  I've learned a lot though, and it's looking and working much better.  At the start of the year I decided all over again that I hated my design, and have been working hard on it the past month and a half.  That's included teaching myself about layers, CSS and Javascript, so it's been a lot of work!  The "old" site is still on the internet, but hopefully the redesign will be up by the end of the month.

I don't really know if I have any special skills or knowledge to share with others, but I'll certainly try where I can.

Bobert
Posts: 5

My turn.

I'm Robert. I'm a 20 year old Webmaster in training. I go to Virginia College in Huntsville, Al. where I'm getting my a$$ociates (silly filter) as an "Internet Webmaster Technician".

I am currently employed at the McDonalds down the road. I might be getting a job with one of my instructors as a graphics designer in a couple of months. Apparently, he showed a client of his some wallpapers that I made on some of the computers there, and he liked what I made, so I guess that he'll want me to make backgrounds and such for some kind of programs the he's making.  ;D

My current intrest is CSS. Not too long ago, I started to try to make everything with CSS. I'll even make simple layouts that might be simple with tables, but really hard with CSS. I guess that I like the challenge.

I enjoy playing online games (when I have a chance), and walks on the beach.

That's about it.

Charise
Posts: 4

woops..nearly missed this section.. and shot straight over to the design stuff.. ~so typical of me~ heh!

Not much to tell about myself, really~  I enjoy designing websites (page sets)... infact it's a major passion of mine and all the work I've done has all been for fun and free to anyone who deems it worthy of their personal use.  My family has been telling me for years to do something productive and go to college and turn my hobby into something more... (I'm still thinking about that).  I've only designed one business website, all the others have been personal pages for friends and family..but I'm really turning an eye toward the professional business looks out there...

I also know that to really go anywhere in that regard would mean college.  That would also mean starting all over as well... I've already been down that road but in a completely different field of study... At any rate, here I am more of a student looking for education through interaction with all of you!

It's wonderful to meet others with the same interests as me who actually have some incredible insight, I know I'll be visiting often and appreciating all the thoughts, advice and information that all of you have to share.

Third_floor
Posts: 4

I'm an 18 year old self taught web designer.  I'm looking to start a business, and am going to Virginia Tech to be a computer engineer.  I want to learn the server side stuff like PHP, and don't know where to start, but I also have a huge interest in graphic design.  I have the Adobe CS Suite, courtesy of Gradware.com, and have enjoyed using Photoshop's improvements (I've been using it since v5.5) and learning GoLive.  I'm currently learning Flash, and my only website I run is my band's (see it here.)  So, I'm a relative newbie to the Web Design community, but I stumbled upon this website and was immediately intrigued by this month's CSS articles and the Fun With Fonts page.  I spent a good 4 or 5 hours reading through most of the content on this page. Congrats an an excellent website, and I know I can glean a lot from this forum.  See you around...

Lauri
Posts: 6

I'm 18 too, live in Estonia and have great ambitions in design. I've been working in a publishing house as a designer since I was 16 (don't get me wrong - I haven't quit the school) and now want to start working in a web-design company (any offers are weolcome). In web design I prefer non-flash sites and also try to get everything out of Photoshop (I've done tons of tutorials).

Kaa
Posts: 10

I'm 19, used to live in London but now I'm in a place called Reading which is just outside London (pronounce it without the "a". I'm at uni studying the soul destroying subject "Computer Science and Cybernetics", but it's made better by the fact that I love uni life.

I started web design when I was 14, of course I was rubbish at it at the time, but you have to start somewhere. I finally popped my web design cherry and made my first full blown site "house of bobat", which still runs today (and is in desperate need of an update, admittedly).

I also started photography at 16, of course when I'm rich and famous I'll be able to buy myself a proper camera and not a really cheap one, which I use at the moment  ;D.

I tried working for a web design company that my freind started up, but I found that I didn't enjoy designing sites when it was under the pressure of being a "job" as opposed to a hobby. So I left the group, but I still do the odd job for them if they need someone to sort out their html for them (and i get a cut out of the pay as well, so it's all good).

One of the things I've tried and failed to get into was DJ'ing. Never had the money to buy decks, never knew the people to teach me mixing, couldn't be bothered to start buying stuff on vinyl. So it never happened. Not that I care that much, but it would have been nice to have become a superstar scratch monk .

Alonzo_the_armless
Posts: 4

My name is John and I live and work in a suburb north of Detroit. I've been doing web design since 2000. I first started using FrontPage on the Mac, but found it difficult to use. I learned some very basic HTML and created my first personal site. A year later, i started working in Dreamweaver and still continue to.

Now that Dreamweaver MX works more in CSS, I'd like to use the tutorials from the WPDFD site to learn more about it. I was hoping to use dreamweaver to do it all for me, but I'm beginning to learn that I can't make it work if I don't understand CSS to begin with.

I've also just started working Flash, which is very different from what I've worked in before. The timelines make sense, but the scripting is hard to get used to.

Anyway, hi everyone!

Joe Gillespie
Posts: 528

Hi John, welcome to the forum.

My tutorials are there to teach you CSS, not Dreamweaver. You can use Dreamweaver's text editor to do it all if that's what you have. Trying to do it in WYSIWYG has two problems, first, Dreamweaver is not very good at it and secondly, you won't learn CSS that way just in the same way that you can't learn to drive by sitting in a passenger seat!

There are plenty of good books on Flash (ActionScript) programming. I like the Friends of Ed books (Foundation Actionscript). Have a look on Amazon.

Just a little step at a time, that's all it takes.

Alonzo_the_armless
Posts: 4

Thanks for the Flash book suggestions! I'll definitely look into it.

I didn't mean to give the impression I was planning on learning Dreamweaver. here. I plan on learning CSS from scratch more. I figure that a good background of the basics would help me understand the use of CSS in Dreamweaver better. I wasn't clear with the way I posted. I plan on doing some web work completely in coding in CSS first to learn things like positioning tables, sizing text, and other important basics.

Thanks also for the welcome and for all the great work you've done on the site and forum.  

Arcticfox
Posts: 1

Hi everyone!  I am Arcticfox; some may remember me from www.unmetered.org days.  I am 71 and I wish I had been born 50 years later as I could never enthuse so much about my profession as a Mainframe engineer as I do about the 'Net' and all the advantages is brings - hat off to Tim Berners-Lee.

Having created [ftp]www.alpineplantcentre.co.uk[/ftp] I am attending a course to become familiar with Macromedia Flash, CSS and GCI scripting.  No I don't expect to be head hunted nor do I expect to be innovative in web design.  What I would like to do is to produce a family website.

That's it folks!!

Joe Gillespie
Posts: 528

The big difference between working with mainframes and Web pages is that on Web pages, you can use 2s and 3s as well as 0s and 1s

Welcome to the forum. A family site is a very worthwhile and rewarding project - and age only brings experience.

Jazzbones
Posts: 4

I'm sort of a newbie - I've been doing some web stuff off and on since early 2002.

I'm a 36 year old elementary computer teacher at a private school in Wichita, Kansas, USA, and have a lot of fun with the kids. I've been teaching computer for four years now, after having been a band director for nine years. I still play (bass trombone in a jazz band) but like my schedule better now. Not nearly as much evening stuff, and I like that!

I do a lot of drawing with the younger ones - I use a really cool freeware drawing program that gets them using left and right mouse buttons and holding down shift, control and alt to do various things. Gets them conditioned to mouse usage. I also do a little simple word processing, again, mainly just to get them familiar with basic mouse and keyboard skills AND the terms I use (click, right click, click and drag, etc.)

With the older elementary kids I do a lot of touch typing, get them introduced to word processors, presentation programs, and spreadsheets, learn a little about how to research for info on the net, and even some VERY basic HTML. I also use a program called Game Maker to teach some basic programming in the fun of a game design environment. Its a hoot to see my third graders put together a simple game (with a lot of help from me, of course!)

The sites I maintain are for organizations that really can't pay me much more than what it costs to host the site, but its great to get to learn in a setting where it is 1) safe to mess things up a bit and have my "client" be relatively patient and understanding, yet 2) the real deal, which keeps enough pressure on me to always stay serious about it. I've found when I'm just fooling around on my own, I don't do nearly as good of a job.

So glad to be here, and look forward to asking some dumb questions  :  and maybe eventually even answering some!

Terakris
Posts: 23

Thought i should post too.

Hi, My names Kris. Im 26 and from a great place called Milton Keynes, UK (im sure everyone here from the UK will know it!   ).

Ive been doing web design for about 6-7 years now. I started off working for the local college, where i used to teach people how to use the net, video conferencing etc but then went on to create the colleges web site.

Shortly after winning an award for it, i moved to a very large UK company where i have been for the past 4 & half years working as a web designer creating internal & external sites. Ive had some fun projects like working on some WAP when that was all the rage : , done some handheld stuff to use on GRPS handhelds but mainly good old PC based web development.

In my spare time I help out the MR2 Roadster Owners Club where im on the committee as the club designer. Its all good fun and you get to meet some great people... hard work though!

Well thats about it!  ;D

Joann
Posts: 4

Hello everyone! My name is JoAnn and I am an Instructional Designer and educator. I spend my day hours trying to whip my Institutions Website into shape and protecting the faculty from themselves in the course management system. Late into the evening you can find me in the classroom working with new Web designers or on my laptop trying to get my own Website up to snuff.

My family consists of two standard poodles (named Sam & Libby), my partner of 15 years, and 5 computers. When I am not trying to learn a new technique or design tutorials my family (two legged & four legged) and I like to hike and camp.

Peter
Posts: 3

Hello. My name is Peter Moulding and I got into web design through researching my family history. I had lots of info that could be useful to others with my surname so decided to make a web site at http://www.mouldingname.info/ to share it. That was about 15 months ago and I have been having great fun ever since.

WPDFD was the first website I found when googling for "web design" and it has been pretty well my favourite design ever since. And of course Joe writes great articles too!

I learned HTML and CSS from a book and I use Metapad which is like Notepad but has a replace facility. Part of my website uses TreePad for family trees and the code it produces is fairly horrendous, so I am glad I haven't relied on programmes to produce my markup. I think I've saved myself lots of bloat and gained a better understanding that way. I've tried to extend my skills by entering a couple of redesign competitions at http://9rules.com/version2/ - my first at http://www.mouldingname.info/gut/ and my second at http://www.01010.org/imdb/. And I now have a blog at http://www.01010.org/. My blog site, being dynamic, uses Textpattern and the markup it produces is pretty clean, so I can recommend it to anyone considering blogging. And that's about it! First it was the family history bug and now it's the web design bug that has got me!

Tboss_hidalgo
Posts: 4

Hey guys,

I was kinda hesistant at first to post message here simply because I don't have much to say about me. Nothing really interesting and besides, I am such a newbie in web design. Still learning my way through. But I don't know, there is something about this site that is so encouraging and makes one feels very welcome.

Anyway, I am 32 yrs. old. I am originally from the Philippines but 3 yrs. ago I moved here (alone) in Canada. I have a degree in Fine Arts major in Advertising. I worked in an Advertising agency as Visual artist for a year and then after I moved to  client side as Promotions and Special Events Officer.

After years of not doing any artistic stuff, I suddenly find myself wanting to be into it again. Actually, the turning point came when I moved here in Canada. I guess, at some point in our lives we really have to go back to what we love doing and where we really belong.

So much has changed in the field of art since I "left" and these days to be able to be more competitive, one has to learn computer applications. Armed with enthusiasm and interest in computer I enrolled myself in diploma course in Computer Graphics and Web Media. I just finished school and I am hoping to be able to eventually get a job as graphic designer or web designer. I still have lots to learn, though (learning is a lifetime job, anyway) specially with hand coding which is my greatest waterloo. But I am trying hard to be good at it and to other aspects of web/graphic design.

Thanks for this site. Such a great and valuable source of infos.

Owenreese
Posts: 3

Hi this is Owen.
My first computer was the TI-99A. I remeber writinge small programs (mostly ping pong games) on this machine, saving the code on regular audio tape cassettes. Took a computer class in HS one time, think they had apple2e's (state of the art - top of the line systems . Surfed the 7 seas on a sub for 6 years - by the way if your think'n about joining the submarine service so's you could get a quick look at a mermaid, forget about that idea man- cuz there aint no port holes on subs... After the navy, went to Hong Kong to chase a girl down. Lived there for 3 years - my first civi job was @ hk's star tv uplink site. amazing i was able to stay in hk for 3 yrs.. american tourist (at the time) could only stay in hk for 3 months - any way a spcl thanx goes out to those folks at star tv for helping me get that work visa and for giving me a job of course. While at star, I became more interested in computers & started a telegram svc (side business) called Philippina's Ltd. I purchased several old computers from the HK stock exchange using them to send and rcv txt messages between hk & pi. Came back to usa in 94 - took a job with hci - helped maintain directv's uplink site for a year. Sadly, one day, just after I put in my resignation, I unplugged a power cord to a switch matrix and all 150 channels went down hard...kinda looked like sabatage but it wasn't & i guess i'll never forgive myself for the stupid mistake. Late 95, dad & I invented the variscale - a mechanical device that measures lat & long on topo maps. The folks at the fed center (USGS) thought it was pretty cool. Did that for 3 years or so. Last 7 years been kinda doin my own thing - installin dishes & writing code. 2 kids, a beautiful wife and dog that pisses on the carpet. oh.. yes i did marry the girl in hk...

Jacque
Posts: 2

Hi Everyone!
I'm a newbie to html and css, I've dabbled with both in crystal report development but I finally got off my duff and have been working on my personal website.  It's really ugly at the moment but I'm hoping to change that by gleaning as much from the members here and taking some on line courses and I have my library of computer books.

I'm from San Diego , CA
I have 3 children - actually a husband ;D and 2 cats.

Matthstrife
Posts: 8

Eh... well nice of me to forget to introduce myself...

I'm Canadian (French-Canadian from Québec) and took a College Certificate (for lack of more accurate translation) in "Business Multimedia" (for lack of a more accurate translation too) in 2003, during which I learned how to do commercial level Websites, e-com included but without the SSL and transaction APIs, unfortunately.

My strenght is programming/scripting/coding, how ever you prefer to call it, (ASP, PHP, SQL and Java Script) but once in a while I can whip up a decent design. Recently I've been reading here and there that CSS is now more efficient and more popular (for accessibility and usability) to "format" the layout so I decided to give it a go and now I'm here, asking some stuff in the layout forum. Internet Exploder... *grumbles* don't you just want to nuke it to the next galaxy eh?  >

Oh... and please forgive me if I make my sentences too long or my punctuation is lacking or misplaced... I already have troubles with that in my native language... it's crazy how fast stuff like that is forgotten!  :o Wording problems is of course due to a very incomplete vocabulary.  

Melientje
Posts: 4

hello,

I'm a 22 year old student informatics from Belgium. I am in my second year (I've already tried teaching but that didn't work out).

I'm building websites since I was 19. But the last 2 years I'm working my way up by learning scripts such as JavaScript, PHP, ASP,... At school I learn languages like Java en Cobol, so that makes me a very varied programmer (I think  ???). I have already made a couple websites, 15 to be exactly. But I'm always searching for new things and inspiration from other websites or users are welcome (I don't know everything).

This is all I want to say for now.

mel

David
Posts: 40

I did some English teaching over the summer and had great fun.  I'm thinking I might use it as an excuse to go abroad in the not so distant future.  I've also heard of Milton Keynes.  They've got some cool outdoor activities going on indoors there, and no traffic jams.  That must be a UK rarety.

Anyway, I'm not a very likely web designer as it happens -  I've actually been trying to get into the film industry - but a possible wd trainee/job opportunity came up recently and the lure was too great for me to ignore.  I get too easily frustrated to do something like C++ programming but web design allows me to make a nice compromise: creativity alleviating some of the inevitable pain caused by accidentally leaving out a colon, for instance.

So this job interview is about 2 weeks from now.  In the mean time I need to get some practice in as I've not done any html for a while.  I will need to design a website for my music face (I compose & produce music) some time in the not-so-distant future anyway so I figured I'd make a start on it early and have something extra to impress prospective employers with (well that's the plan anyway).

To that end I started doing research on the net for tutorials, reference material and such and found this website on my travels.  The zine is really cool and has given me loads of inspiration.  I'm glad I discovered it!  

Slayerx
Posts: 1

Hi all my names shawn im 22 and im currently studying to be a Certified Internet Wevb Master

I currently reside in the UK but hope in a few years to reloacte to the USA or Canada

Bradanderson
Posts: 10

Hiya,
My name is Brad and I'm a business English trainer in Japan working for a small company and training in client locations. I do side work on weekends and whenever I can as a photographer. That's where my heart is, and someday when I move back to the US will pursue it full time or at least more than here. I've been doing creative photography since HS, and worked part time for a pro during college. My only advertising thus far has been through the internet and word of mouth, and I have landed a fair amount of work considering. I'm self taught using Dreamweaver and Photoshop and just put up my first site using CSS  (www.bridalsnap.com) thanks to this site and a number of other internet resources. After seeing how easy it is, I plan to remake my main English site (www.ididthat.biz) with CSS as well.
My goals for this year are to learn how to take better pictures with my D100 that will minimize my digital workflow in PS, and to take some great photos of my new baby.
Brad

Valerie
Posts: 3

Hi! I just wanted to say that I am new to this forum.  It looks like there is lots of really valuable info here!

Vinmar
Posts: 1

Hi

I joined this forum to speak with the administrator about advertising on the main website. That was my only intention. But, after browsing through this forum I found it quite informative and will most certainly enjoy my time here.

I have strong experience in the new media sector ranging from mid-level to high spec search engine optimisation and online media and advertisement, I work closely with na e-commerce web development team that compliments both of our services and achieves good results.

That's about it folks besides my love for Italian food and deep water soloing.

124b124a124c124h124
Posts: 2

Hello,

I found your site yesterday and have come back today to join.  I am a student studying IT at Glamorgan University.  I have developed a kean interest in the web, and there is so much to learn.

I am sorry to here the site is coming to an end, with so much information present in clear easy to follow wording, it will be missed.

I hope to learn a lot from this site, so hopefully will be seeing you all online. Best wishes to Joe for the create site we have today.

Vernon Chambers
Posts: 0

Greetings to All!

Let's see, where do I begin? ..

First and foremost, I'm a programmer (mostly Oracle and other languages). I've been asked by my fraternity to design a website. I haven't any experience at all. I mean NONE! therefore I will be asking, which will be 'simple' questions to everyone, but due to my lack of experience, new to me.

So I ask you bare with me as I travel this labyrinth of Web Design

Hopefully folks can point me in the right direction and I'll ask as needed.

Thanks,

V

Vernon Chambers
Posts: 0

Greetings to All!

Let's see, where do I begin? ..

First and foremost, I'm a programmer (mostly Oracle and other languages). I've been asked by my fraternity to design a website. I haven't any experience at all. I mean NONE! therefore I will be asking, which will be 'simple' questions to everyone, but due to my lack of experience, new to me.

So I ask you bare with me as I travel this labyrinth of Web Design

Hopefully folks can point me in the right direction and I'll ask as needed.

Thanks,

V

Vernon Chambers
Posts: 0

Greetings to All!

Let's see, where do I begin? ..

First and foremost, I'm a programmer (mostly Oracle and other languages). I've been asked by my fraternity to design a website. I haven't any experience at all. I mean NONE! therefore I will be asking, which will be 'simple' questions to everyone, but due to my lack of experience, new to me.

So I ask you bare with me as I travel this labyrinth of Web Design

Hopefully folks can point me in the right direction and I'll ask as needed.

Thanks,

V

Mike Crone
Posts: 10

Welcome Vernon,

Just ask your questions....

Mike...

WPDFD Forum Moderator

Mark Singh
Posts: 0

hello my name is mark and i am from India working in a webdesign company.
http://www.icoachusa.com
http://www.applelounge.com

Mark Singh
Posts: 0

hello my name is mark and i am from India working in a webdesign company.
http://www.icoachusa.com
http://www.applelounge.com

Cesar Perez
Posts: 0

Hello Everyone,

My name is Cesar Perez and I've just stopped by to let you know I'll be looking in on the forums daily now. I work for CoffeeCup Software as a support specialist, but I also like to edit my site regularly. I'm by no means an expert on web design or CSS but I'll be happy to lend a hand to anyone asking questions.

I'm also helped in the migration of the old site to the new, so if you notice any problems in the archived (or new) articles let me know and we'll get them corrected.

Hope to see some of you at the Webmaster Jam Session next week!

Grafisch Vormgever
Posts: 0

i am me...

if it's impossible. I want to get my teeth into it!

Grafisch Vormgever
Posts: 0

i am me...

if it's impossible. I want to get my teeth into it!

G3 Creative
Posts: 0

A very quick introduction from Marianne.

Hi everyone, I am not new to graphic design as I have been
working for numerous design studios for about 12 years since I graduated from Glasgow School of Art and really love what I have been doing. However, I am new to website design and I am sure that I will
be requiring more help before too long as coding is not my strongest point.

I am working alongside an extremely talented web designer
at G3 Creative but hate having to ask her for help all the time as I feel she must be getting a little peed off.

Anyway I look forward to helping you all with any graphic design question and hope you can help me as well.

Mari

http://www.g3creative.co.uk

Bob Way
Posts: 0

Hello everyone, my name is Bob Way. I am new to the forum but not to web design. I have been dabbling with web design for about two years and have been serious about it for the last two years.

I work during the day doing web applications at my day job and at night I do my best to design websites for others as well. I have taken a number of on-line courses in various web disciplines. But I find that I continue learn more each day and there always seem to be something new I have to learn how to do.

I hope that I can get some help on the forums and maybe provide some help on CSS questions. I look forward to participating in this forum.

Bob Way

I ask simply that you go wherever your imagination takes you, never doubting that no matter where you go, there you are. - Buckaroo Banzai Bob Way www.bwayweb.com

Chris Pearson
Posts: 0

Hello all, My name is, as you may have guessed, Chris. I'm a Sun Hardware engineer in the UK and i'm trying to expand my very little knowledge of web design/coding. I have started with a Sun Netra X1 server running Solaris 10 and apache2. I'm not trying to do anything particularly clever but just get my head round a few basics. A few I have managed already but after looking round your site i think it will be a great resource. http://www.kalas.homeunix.com