New to CSS and Php

[swarmcatcher]

A quick introduction and a call out to all the recent new comers and anyone else that can advise.
I have an absolutely crap local business website which is well optimised because its like an encyclopedia of pests.
So after a lot of procrastination I took the jump and purchased genesis thinking that was the solution to all (having been ripped of twice by web designers in the last 10 years).
Well after a week of messing about with constant interruptions i have at last come to the conclusion i need to learn css , php and java as well (?).
So starting with CSS and Php can anyone point us in the right direction for fast learning.

Are there many out there that have purchased all the themes and used them as examples to figure out how it all needs to be done? if so was this a good way of doing it, and were there any good tips that you can offer?

http://www.valepestcontrol.co.uk

[nutsandbolts]

I did a tutorial awhile back that will help you get started with making CSS changes: http://www.nutsandboltsmedia.com/how-to-customize-your-genesis-child-theme-with-chromes-inspector/

As for PHP, the best way to learn is to google the specific thing you need to do. For example, "genesis how to add a widget area after posts" or "genesis how to remove post meta" - once you work through a couple of tutorials, you'll start to get a feel for how Genesis does things.

There are also a TON of Genesis specific plugins that make things easier: http://www.nutsandboltsmedia.com/10-great-and-simple-genesis-plugins/

Hope that helps!

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Andrea Whitmer, Owner/Developer, Nuts and Bolts Media
I provide development and training services for designers • Find me on Twitter and Google+

[swarmcatcher]

Andrea you have a new fan.

A real thank you for your input.
You summed it up nicely with regard to being lazy, that's exactly what I felt people would think of my questions. To be honest i have spent a ridiculous amount of very unproductive time on this, not just in the last week but in total procrastination over the last year as a result of not being able to find a proper starting point or the answers i needed.

Its just as you indicated- why should any of the more experienced people want to assist me if I can't even be bothered to work out what appears to be the most basic of things - a lot of the time i am actually struggling to identify what it is that I am trying to solve, -thought I had a grip of the terminology but I know that isn't the case from the amount of time spent not getting answers 🙂

I had been aware of chrome inspect but had not taken sufficient time to look at it and it is pretty much exactly as I need.
By the looks of it I can look at design elements of various sites to see how it has been done and then imitate it on my own site

With reference to plugins, am I mistaken that adding plugins reduces the speed of the site?
Or is it that plugins such as WordPress SEO by Yoast, Genesis Simple Hooks, Genesis Extender only affect my ability to edit the site. Presumably if I then delete the plugins all the editing of the files remain.

Your reply has been a real help - THANK YOU

[nutsandbolts]

No problem! Glad I was able to help.

Regarding plugins, it really depends on what type of plugin it is. If it's something that mainly acts on the admin area of your site and doesn't load its own stylesheets, Javascript, etc., it won't affect load times. My own site is running about 40 plugins, but since very few of them do anything on the front end, the site still loads in under a second. Many of the Genesis plugins simply give you a place inside the dashboard to enter various information, so they're very lightweight.

If you notice that your site is taking awhile to load, you can use http://tools.pingdom.com to find out what's slowing it down.

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Andrea Whitmer, Owner/Developer, Nuts and Bolts Media
I provide development and training services for designers • Find me on Twitter and Google+

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