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"I am interested in becoming a Web Designer. Where would you recommend would be the best place or way to begin?"
The field of website design has grown rapidly to the place that now most website design companies employ several specialists, such as a programmer to work with JavaScript and CGI programs, a designer who lays out the website, an HTML programmer who takes the design and turns it into HTML, and a salesperson who works directly with clients. It's not very common to find all these skills in a single person, although there are many excellent single-person website designers. You should aim to have basic skills in all areas and choose to specialise on your strength. Experience is a great teacher, where to begin:
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Get your own website at Yahoo! GeoCities
http://geocities.yahoo.com or Homesteadwhere you can experiment.
- You can learn HTML from a book or a community college course. One of the most popular beginners' books is ‘HTML 4 for the World Wide Web: Visual Quickstart Guide, by Elizabeth Castro (Fourth Edition, Peachpit Press, 2000).
- Graphics, a helpful book from the aspect of artistic design is ‘Web by Design: The Complete Guide', by Molly E. Holzschlag (Sybex).
Once you've mastered the basics of HTML, take a webpage that you admire, and try to recreate it on your website with your own graphics. You'll learn a great deal this way. Volunteer your growing talents to a non-profit organization to build their website, and try to get an internship or entry level job at a local website design shop to gain experience. Then plan to keep learning; the field changes rapidly.