Many of these jobs can and certainly do cross-over needless to say, we are involved with various freelance web-designers who each cover almost all of the above roles. It will require time though to create such an array of commercial abilities. A web design program therefore that will equip you to get into the work-place should include the following disciplines - A basic introductory tutorial to web design, and then how to use Adobe Dreamweaver & have a fundamental knowledge of Adobe Flash. This should then lead on to an understanding of 'HTML' & 'CSS', with some coaching within the field of E-commerce. 'PHP' must be covered in order that dynamic web sites can be built (ASP.NET is actually much more involved, and 'PHP' is more straightforward to get into at first,) & a simple understanding of databases and 'SEO' should be mastered. All this is basically to reach a level of competence technically where you can work on a broad enough array of websites. The physical skills must develop first, before you can fine tune them to a natural and flowing style - just like the time you learned to drive a car. A comprehensive training-program like this would possibly entail about 400 to 500 hours of part-time practice & study and can therefore be successfully accomplished part-time over 12 months. As there are lots of things to consider, its well worth taking a few minutes to look closely at any training programs you're interested in. Speak to a person with knowledge of the industry who can help you sort things out.

The most important resources employed by web-designers are the design-environments, with Adobe Creative Suite (now in Version 4 as of '09/10) staying the most popular commercially. Whilst 'Adobe Flash' offers access to interactive and animated 'graphical' content material, 'Dreamweaver' is the software program that builds web-sites. In some ways we might see Dreamweaver as a glorified Word Processor. Within particular rules & constraints, it lets you display graphics and text, and then through a method known as page-linking you can create basic inter-activity within the website. HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) program code is produced in the background with Dreamweaver, much like any web design-environment. Effectively, this 'language of web-browsers is a 'script' which draws and controls the web page being viewed. Layout tag 'languages' like XML & CSS are paired with 'HTML'. As these 'tag' 'languages' are standardised, the streamlined & more efficient outcomes perform successfully on many different platforms. What this means is the web-page will look exactly the same on MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, 'Safari' etc. (at least, that's the plan!) So although you are laying graphic-blocks & text, in the background, 'Dreamweaver' is turning this in to 'code'. Its essential to achieve an in depth comprehension of these 'languages' if you wish to be a website designer at the commercial standard.

Be on the lookout that any qualifications you're considering doing will be recognised by employers and are the most recent versions. 'In-house' exams and the certificates they come with are not normally useful in gaining employment. All the major IT organisations such as Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA or Adobe all have globally acknowledged proficiency programmes. Major-league companies like these can make sure you stand out at interview.

The key factor to emphasise is that the training alone will not make you a web designer; it will simply coach you on the techniques. Throughout your study and training, you must apply yourself to constructing & developing as many web-sites as you possibly can, to prepare and assemble your portfolio. A craft or interest might be a very good starting place, or maybe your favourite animal, or a holiday resort you particularly loved. You could even set up inter-active web sites & get traffic on them. Adobe qualifications are useful, but showing how you can use what you've learned says much more about you as a web designer!

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