I became a webmistress ca. 1996 with the first website (original) of my library, Houghton (current) at Harvard. We hired a student to design it, of course, but after that it was all mine to learn on. For about 5 years it was my maintenance project, sometimes more than that when I had time to learn more HTML. Then the Hierarchy took over our individual library websites and I was retired (from that role).
Since then I have had a number of sort-of websites of my own, for unclear purposes; I have also attended a number of partial classes, including CSCIE 1 (referenced in our Unit 5 assignments), but my endurance has been lacking in learning HTML, or XHTML, thoroughly. The same goes for CSS. Last millenium I was introduced to Dreamweaver and didn’t often look back at raw code. That said, Dreamweaver can let you gum up the works, and I do aspire to clean code. I just lack the patience. And I don’t find myself studying without a practical goal in sight. I know enough to produce some poor web pages, sadly for at least one non-profit for whom I am the current webmaster (URL withheld to protect the innocent).
Within Dreamweaver, I had access to the server for our web files and would edit, usually split code/visual mode, and upload directly. I remember at first I had trouble getting my head around the locations of these files; at the same time I was availing myself of the allowed personal Harvard web space to attempt my first website, so eventually I got it, but without the background we’re getting now.
Nontheless, I learn best with a systematic—podcast or video or guided online instruction—approach, rather than being left with the book. But my favorite book (and suite of books, for this kind of learning) has been the Head First series–as ever, big pictures and simple shapes. They offer good visuals, which is worth the extra padding they create in the books.
The W3C tutorials are my favorite online source of instruction. I have access via a Harvard account to some commercial tutorials, similar to UA’s suite. I tend to want a cheat sheet nearby and not to have to consult fullblown tutorials, however.
