Khymnon 0 Report post Posted January 7, 2006 - "Say, can anyone tell me how to put my heading in, say, the center of a line?" - "I don't want a blue box thingy around my picture thingy that I have on my web page thingy .. whatcha think I should do, dude?" - "there's a thing called, like, a link. what's that? is it like an RJ or summin'?" Now, when I come across posts like that, I have to sit back for a minute, take a quick series of deep breathes, and call a friend to chain me to my chair so that I won't start a flame war. I'm sure everyone has run into posts like the ones above. Alright, perhaps not just like them, but you get the idea. What do you normally do? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping someone to learn a new thing. But when a person asks a question that's so annoyingly basic, I have to wonder about what that person knows about the subject. I wonder if it's worthwhile to answer that person at all, since he/she will most likely stumble on the very next step. I'm posting this in the Web Design section, since it's - perhaps - the easiest to learn. I mean, for all intents and purposes, if you learn about HTML, you can safely call yourself a Web Desinger, and even though many will not approve of it, you'll always find a purist or two who will stand by your side. But if you haven't taken such a simple step at learning such a brain-damagingly simple language, will you tell me, for the sake of all that's good and pure, how do you expect to build yourself a Website? Are you going to ask around until someone does it for you to put him/herself out of their misery? I'm sorry if I seem a tad too harsh, but I couldn't find easier words to descripe the subject. And I apologize for any and everyone who might think I'm talking about them, but please think about what I said. Before you ask about something that you know is too basic, then why don't you learn it first? Trust me, it's for your own benefit. Good luck! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iGuest 3 Report post Posted January 7, 2006 There are some who can't be bothered learning and have good reasons too, which is why they are willing to pay you for your services. There are others who want to learn, but expect everything handed to them (depending on my mood, depends on whether I'm bothered to help those). There are those who actually have learnt something, but find themselves in a little trouble with getting something working (those people have at least tried). If I learn something new from someone wanting help, then obviously that was worth my effort in helping them. Knowledge is power! It's like a joke I heard about Flying, if you have to rely on a Flight Attendant to explain how to put a seatbelt on, is your life worth saving, harsh I know, but even simple things like this can bring up these questions. To answer those questions though, incase there are some... hopefully none here If your heading is done this way: <h1>This is a heading!</h1> There's multiple ways of doing it, We could do inline element styling. <h1 style="text-align: center;">This is a heading!</h1> We could use inline CSS styling with an 'id' attribute, a 'class' attribute or use the 'element' name. <head> <style> h1 { text-align: center; } h1#heading { text-align: center; } h1.center { text-align: center; } #heading { text-align: center; } .center { text-align: center;} </style> </head> <body> <h1 id="heading" class="center">This is a heading!</h1> </body> There's also the external CSS file we could use... but need I say anymore? Already I'm not up to explaining all of this, I rather explain something complex than something basic, which is why I try making even the easiest things harder than what it needs to be, just so I can offer more advice on the subject. I could have gone on about deprecated elements, but I rather you learn the now, than the past. For the images and the blue box: <style> img { border: none; } </style> To give you a definition of a link, why not use the power of google and ask the question... "What is a link?" You might need to define it better using "What is a hyperlink?" And you'll have many definitions that will hopefully enlighten you about this. Learning HTML is easy, learning standards is a curve ball, but you should learn it and you will discover more about HTML than the basics and could comfortably call yourself a web designer if you grasp this. Cheers, MC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Khymnon 0 Report post Posted January 7, 2006 MC, of course I was only talking about people who won't bother with learning in the first place. Those who are pressed in time or have special circumstances, naturally what I said doesn't apply to them. As well as people who have tried, but still certain areas remain ambigious to them.Well, thanks for the explanations anyway, I suppose you had some free time to kill. :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
finaldesign1405241487 0 Report post Posted January 10, 2006 Well, I can say people can do anything if they will, Im saying this from my own point of view... Before just a year or so, I didn't know sh*t about webdesign, html, php, mysql. And now? well just look at my webpage final-design.net and you judge how much I advanced and learned in that 1-year period. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hercco 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2006 I understand what you mean... It's actualyl same thing in everything that gets discussed online. If you visit message boards and/or accept random people to your intant messaging lists you'll know how many times some people ask a question for which you can find answer on the first page of results from a search engine. It's actually funny, these people bother to write a question (well, granted they usually don't bother to "write" in the sense of getting anywhere near with spelling and grammar) although it would be usually less of an effort to type the keywords to a search engine. Plus search engines give you the information (if found) immediately and Google or Yahoo! doesn't get pissed for asking dumb questions, they in fact like it. And Finaldesign, your webpage looks neat, very good job for only one year of learning. Good thing for you is that you're knowledge and views of web design are fresh, meaning that you're not stuck with the five year old styles and templates but do sites that modern web users like to look and use. And congrats for not using iframes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Logan Deathbringer 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2006 I hate to admit this but in the last few months I've just got back into the design world and I'm sure if you asked someone like vujsa and a few others around here that have helped me out, they might say that I've asked some question and help that they might have found to be "simple" and could have been found on the first page of a google search.Now to explain this, on my part and possibly those like me out there, I have been very hard pressed for time and also I'd rather ask someone for help and get to know them in the process so that I can gradually work with them as I move along the path of learning I've embarked on.Asking a simple question usually leads to much more complicated and intricate questions and answers down the road. Now I know that this post was started about people that keep asking simple questions and never move beyond them but I just wanted to point out that there are some of us that start simple for 2 reasons.1) we don't want to jump to far in over our heads2) we want to start simple with someone and work up with them so that we can build a working vocabulary and terminology and overcome language barriers if they exist. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Khymnon 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2006 Hello, Logan. I'm glad you decided to join us. :-)I understand your point completely, and I'm glad you got mine.Of course, different styles of learning is something to be expected. People are different. But what did you mean by "there are some of us that start simple..."? Don't we all start simple? :-)Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I'd think that a good way to learn something online is to ...STEP #1: either search for or directly ask about the subject matter. Know where to look for more information about it. Try to understand what it's all about.STEP #2: get into the details now. Learn the inner workings.STEP #3: alright, now you're stuck on something .. the tutorial you're reading, for example, doesn't clearly explain a particular point. So what do you do now?STEP #4: now, you ask people. Brief them on what you already learned, and then ask about the part where you're stuck.STEP #5: so they answered you and you got the point? Great. Now get back to your tutorial until the next time you find something hard to understand.Don't ask about something you can so easily understand by learning it yourself. Why? Because, my good friend, those people who were nice enough to help you the first time around have other things to do, perhaps even other people to help. Baby-sitting you every step of the way is certainly not their sole purpose of their creation.When I started this thread, I was more interested in the subject for it being a sign of bad manners, not a bad learning style, and I certainly didn't try to imply that people who ask simple questions are stupid.I know that I hadn't made my point clear on that before, and so I apologize. I hope it is clear now. :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Logan Deathbringer 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2006 Well I have to try to make another point here. After reading Khymnon's last post I feel like I have to say the following in response.Some people have a hard time grasping what others might consider a simple point. Now don't get me wrong I fully understand that there are areas that the IT community might consider "kindergarten" areas where the basic tutorials cover in a very to the point and straight forward way and we think that they explain it plain enough so why can't everyone get it?Well here is the problem from my point of view. Some people just can't get the "If A happens then go to B" idea with out going through point C first. LOL...did I lose ya there? Ok maybe this will help explain my point a bit better.When I initially went to college I had to take "advanced" math courses...boring...I slept through them. Ok I'll admit it...I failed Physics my first time through...why you might ask...cause I didn't get it, the formulas made no sense to me, and at the time I didn't understand why. Later after talking to a councilor and 2 professors they sent to on and had me take the Trigonometry course, ya they advanced me before I passed the prerequisite. Later on they explained why they did this.Let me guess you want to know why...well here ya go. They decided that the reason I couldn't grasp the basics of physics was because I personally needed to know how the formulas were derived and why they worked. To be able to understand that I had to understand Trigonometry. After sleeping through the trig courses, yes I slept through them and got top marks...I found them boring and extreamly basic, I passed physics with flying colors.Ok what does all that have to do with this post...just my way of explaining that everyone has to take their own path to being able to learn, and not everyone is wired alike. Yes there are those that will always ask how to do the most basic of things over and over because they just don't want to learn, while there are those that after figuring out how to do something 300 times if they are shown the back door, everything will click for them and then they will pass on the knowledge that they just learned to someone else and time wasn't wasted on em.The whole point is that as we help those people we maintain proper manners and in so doing hope they will take the cue and maintain proper manners themselves. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Khymnon 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2006 A thought-provoking post, Logan. :-)Personally, I suppose I'm that A-C-B type you described. I require to know HOW before I know WHAT, most of the time. But I know that's not the common way to learn, so I don't throw my problems on other people's shoulders, and instead I try to learn whatever HOW myself.But still, you're dead right about ... The whole point is that as we help those people we maintain proper manners and in so doing hope they will take the cue and maintain proper manners themselves.Yes, that *is* the whole point. The point of this thread is to, hopefully, make us how to maintain proper manners, whether we're asking the questions or answering them.Thank you, Logan. A great post. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
