Just css or xhtml and css?

[MultikPultik]

I have always designed web pages with html using dreamweaver. I am now looking to learn css, but what i wanted to know is should i buy a book to learn css and xhtml or just a book that covers css? I heard you need to know xhtml to design with css and vice versa?
Junior D why should i drop dreaweaver? it's great.
If i shouldn't use dreamweaver, what should i use? Notepad or something :-)

[bunnynelo]

Just DO it.

[MerryV]

CSS is worthless by itself. It is a markup language used to give style to a document. XHTML, on the other hand, is a markup language to write a document in. XHTML and CSS work together.

Buy a book for both, or one that covers both.

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If you're feeling cheap, you can also learn CSS/XHTML on the Internet without buying a book because XHTML and CSS are really simple markup languages, even if you want to look into more advanced subjects such as namespaces and DTDs. Because they aren't programming languages, there are not very many complex paradigms or techniques that you need to get a hang of.

For CSS:
Tutorial: http://css.maxdesign.com.au/selectutorial/
Reference: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp

And for XHTML:
Tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/
Reference: http://www.zvon.org/xxl/xhtmlReference/Output/index.html

The only learning issue with using the Internet that would be particular relevant to you now would be the use of just CSS only -- no tables -- to build a layout. Then again, after some use and reading around tutorials and samples on the Internet, it may only take you a week or less to get the hang of it and be able to build pages backward-compatible all the way back to NS4.

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Dreamweaver is useful, but if you write the code 100% by yourself, it will be cleaner and smaller. Whereas you know _exactly_ what you want to do, Dreamweaver doesn't. This is especially true if you ever get around to adding interactive features to your site that downgrade. If you happen to be a perfectionist, writing your own code is also the way to go.

If you want a good programming text editor, try either Notepad++ or SciTE:
SciTE: http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
Notepad++: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
There are also:
PSPad: http://www.pspad.com/ (slow startup, though better than Dreamweaver)
Crimson Editor: http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

[mahou]

You need to learn both, one is no good without the other. If you buy a book about CSS it will also have information about XHTML and vice versa.

[MillenChi2007]

Learn CSS!

XHTML is so much like HTML it will take 1 extra day.


So my answer is BOTH! Drop those font tags, and drop dreamweaver!

More info:
Dreamweaver make bad pages, the javascript is flawed, It breaks in IE7. It's a cute idea, but real projects need real programmers and great artists.


SECOND UPDATE

notepad will make you humble. and you'll wind up going crazy!

notepad++ on the other hand will help you along!
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

[darvic]

No book needed

For CSS

http://www.html.net/
http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp
They also have XHTML on their site too.

The first one is a little easier to follow.

Try this free site of website templates
http://openwebdesign.org/

You can see how they implement the CSS

A lot of the ones coming out now there are frames but go back a couple pages and get a lot of CSS stuff..

[overwhelmed]

I suggest you learn both, and I highly recommend this site for learning CSS Â*--Â* they have an â–ºexcellentâ—„ tutorial:

http://www.westciv.com/style_master/academy/css_tutorial/

[MeicalM]

for a million reasons you should drop dreamweaver!

Junior D, just scratched the top of the list!

Learn CSS and be a credit to the profession!

with CSS you can design the right way!

http://www.csszengarden.com/ shows thousands of ways a css designer can show a single html page. These are the skill that are needed in the industry.

[FireDragon]

Using Dreamweaver is fine. I have no idea where these critics get the idea that Dreamweaver writes bad code. My guess is that they don't know how to properly use the program or don't know what they are doing, and find it more convenient to blame the program than themselves.

If you keep your copy of Dreamweaver patched, it will generate perfectly fine HTML and JavaScript.

XHTML is not that difficult to learn. For most intents, it boils down to three key differences from HTML:

1. You don't use tables, attributes (e.g., align, border, etc.) or tags (e.g., <font>, <center>) to format how things display in XHTML. You use CSS instead.

2. You have to close all tags.

3. If you really know what you are doing, you can make up your own XHTML tags.

If you use the latest copy of Dreamweaver or the latest update of Dreamweaver 8, it will write XHML 1 Transitional or XHTML 1 Strict for you. It will also validate XHTML right within the program.

Also, again, the JavaScript that a properly patched copy of Dreamweaver writes works perfectly fine, so long as you provide proper information to the program when trying to use its built-in Behaviors.

In re: Learning CSS, that's tough. It takes a while to get the hang of it, especially when you are trying to use DIVs to lay things out.

My recommendation would be to learn it in a hands-on classroom, since a book simply isn't going to cover all the nuances. However, if you do decide to go the book route, I am very fond of the For Dummies series and the Sam's Teach Yourself series.

Again, don't pay attention to noobs who blame the hammer for their numb thumbs. Any WYSIWYG editor is going to need to be babysat to some degree, but there's a reason professionals use Dreamweaver almost exclusively: it works fine.