One of my new years resolutions is to learn HTML - enough to build a decent interactive website. Any advice on best resources and how long this may take? Thanks!
You want to learn the BASICS of HTML? Then look for the "Beginner's Guide to HTML." IT is no longer hosted at its original place at NCSA's site, but it's what many people (and I) used to learn way back in the mid 90's. Trust me, you want that foundation before you jump into more sophisticated crap that exists nowadays. W3 schools is good, too.
http://www.bentobox.io/ Of the sections here, I heavily recommend Codeacademy, and Dash. Heads up, you're going to have to learn CSS as well if you want a really interactive website, and perhaps JQuery/JavaScript. You can do magical things with HTML 5/CSS 3 these days though, so it's well worth it.
I don't fully agree ^. CRAWL, then WALK, then RUN. Don't jump to CSS, JQuery or JavaScript if you have not learned HTML fully. randomdude, see your skills grow with Notepad first. When you've mastered that, jump into a WYSIWYG (pronounced 'wee-see-wig', stands for "What you see is what you get") editor for web pages. Consider yourself lucky to have many alternatives for that, but one of the best I'd recommend is Dreamweaver. It's worth buying it.
I believe HTML/CSS is better learned in conjunction these days, given how entwined they have become in the latest versions. A lot of HTML tag functionality from the 90s have been disabled and replaced with CSS functions. Dash, and Codeacademy both teach the basics of HTML/CSS to more advanced tricks such as cross-browser compatibility, mobile responsiveness, and even animation at a leisurely and engaging pace.
Thanks Swoly and Northside - advice/resources look promising!! If you had to guesstimate, and if possible to approximate, how long of a time commitment do you think this may be until I can start reading and understanding basic code? i.e. couple of hours per week over three months
I come from a non-technical background, to get the basics of HTML/CSS took me less than a month, possibly even less than a week. If you follow the same curve I do, to get the basics down pat takes very little time, but then it's what follows that's the killer---because as soon as you know the basics of code, you start to know exactly what you don't know, then you're tempted to follow that path. It's like with weight loss: the first ten pounds are easy. The next five are a struggle. The next five after that are hell. Disclaimer: I'm surrounded by a bunch of coders, so that probably helped a lot. Reach out to technical people if you can, and watch them do what they do, you'll pick up a lot of really cool habits.
Complete the tutorial on w3school and try writing something yourself. Would take a couple of hours probably. That will cover the basics. If you want to go any deeper there are a lot more CSS/JavaScript to learn. You will need to read a couple of books.
HTML is easy, but not very powerful by itself. With CSS, you can make a prettier website, definitely. With Javascript, you can make it interactive. As I say to everyone, YouTube is your friend for programming tutorials. Find someone you can stand listening to, and go go go. Best way to learn, IMO. Start with HTML, then move to CSS, then to Javascript if you're game. A couple disclaimers: w3schools is awful, MDN is your best CSS reference, and this is the best reference for CSS positioning (one of the more annoying concepts to learn).
WYSIWYG editors always struck my as useful only for people who don't actually want to learn anything.
Sams teach yourself HTML in 24 hours, without a doubt. I taught myself HTML in the 9th grade in about a month during biology class.
You can use Dreamweaver software to automatically code a webpage in HTML for you pretty much like designing a layout in Photoshop. As for tips for understanding code, I'd just right click and select "View Source" and you can breakdown the code on the webpages you visit to see how they're coding their layouts.
A complete HTML5 video training series is offered free from Microsoft. HTML5 & CSS3 Fundamentals: Development for Absolute Beginners <iframe style="height:540px;width:960px" src="http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/HTML5-CSS3-Fundamentals-Development-for-Absolute-Beginners/Series-Introduction-01/player?w=960&h=540" frameBorder="0" scrolling="no" ></iframe> I also wrote a blog post about all of the free coding training sessions from Microsoft on Channel 9 - http://www.microsoftfanboys.com/2013/01/let-microsoft-teach-you-how-to-code-for-free/
