I have decided as suggested in another post to try learning something. What is best to learn. I though about html first but there are so many editors and builders that do the work for you and I don't think that I will anything more advanced (yet) than these can produce for me. I am thinking javascript may be the best thing to learn as I would like to be able to manipulate the created html forms and documents I use. Can any of the javascript experts on here suggest a good place to start. I don't require to be able to do anything too advanced, just hide things and change what is displayed etc. thanks in advance

The best one: http://www.w3schools.com/ You´ll not need any more

For app building I would say JQuery Mobile

My understanding is that jquery requires a knowledge of javascript. At the moment I would like to be able to manipulate html forms etc which is why I was considering html but there are many editors that will do as much as I need them to so I think javascript seems like the best candidate. I am sure I can obtain help with anything I need to change in html eg. moving bits of code around etc and although I can't write a html page I do feel I can add lines and move stuff around in my created html documents with some guidance from others. I have found this guide http://www.webteacher.com/javascript/ch03.html and have started to go through it. if it doesn't turn out to be any good then I will try the suggestion from @RB above. many thanks.

My understanding is that jquery requires a knowledge of javascript. At the moment I would like to be able to manipulate html forms etc which is why I was considering html but there are many editors that will do as much as I need them to so I think javascript seems like the best candidate. I am sure I can obtain help with anything I need to change in html eg. moving bits of code around etc and although I can't write a html page I do feel I can add lines and move stuff around in my created html documents with some guidance from others. I have found this guide http://www.webteacher.com/javascript/ch03.html and have started to go through it. if it doesn't turn out to be any good then I will try the suggestion from @RB above. many thanks.

sorry for double post

Mr Stuck, Try Code Academy if you want to learn javascript. Its free and you will love it. http://www.codeyear.com -MDG

@MDG thanks for the suggestion. I will check it out also may be good to do a few different courses to make it stick.

thenewboston YouTube videos javascript tutorials are excellent. Fred

start with HTML. than read up on XML. then look into CSS. Think this way: You can put "javascript" inside a HTML document. You don't put HTML inside javascript (unless it happens to be a cool script you wrote that is outputting code for an html document)

@Fred thanks I will check them out. @ATRAIN53 I think the editors available can produce everything I need at the moment for html side so think I will go with javascript to do things with those documents. I no doubt will do html at some point should I require more than can be done with editors but at the moment I just want to be able to add different behavior to forms etc. thanks for all the info, sure I can learn enough to get me started.

You seem to have set your mind on going down the javascript route, fair enough. I'd agree with ATRAIN53 though. html > xml > css > javascript. You learn javascript first you'll still need to learn how to integrate it into html, so you'll need to learn html at some point before getting the javascript working, for example, manipulating forms will need javascript AND html knowledge. Html's a hell of a lot easier way to start developing than javascript!

HTML is ALWAYS a good thing to learn, and it's super simple! Can't really have a web page without good ol' fashion HTML. CSS allows you to extend the design aspect of HTML a ton. Extremely useful! Javascript and jQuery allow you to do some cool stuff in your web pages. Here's a forum topic about a free 30-day course in jQuery: http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=8815365F38E7D1D9E7B9E71 Mark

thanks for the feedback. just to explain what I'm trying to achieve. I would like to create forms for my apps using jotform etc. this will create the required html that's required. the only reason I wanted to learn javascript was to change the behavior of some of the fields. simple stuff like hide parts or for one thing display a different thing in the form. ie. say I create an order form and one of the items is chicken, it comes either fried or grilled. there is a category in the form called "Chicken" with 2 checkboxes with ability to select either fried or grilled. Instead of having the full name displayed as "Fried Chicken" I simply want it to display "Fried" as "Chicken" is already stated as the category. but when the form is submitted then it is submitted with its full name of "Fried Chicken" hope this makes sense. please tell me if I'm on the right track by trying to learn javascript or off the rails completely. be honest as from what you has been said in previous posts I may be trying to walk before I can run here. thanks

From what I understand about Jotform, they create a form that then communicates with their backend to ultimately deliver the results. It seems like it might be dangerous to modify their forms without having it affect something? I don't have any experience with their stuff, so I'd advise if you do mess with the code, you start small...one thing at a time...and test, test, test! No sense is making a ton of changes that completely break the form! Mark

You are indeed trying to run before you walk. JOTFORM really is flexible which is why I keep plugging them. You can create a form on their site, downloading the source code of that form - and then modifying that form more and loading it on your own site. A few tricks to it but search their forum, they will help. It is ONLY the SUBMIT/FORM handling that they don't let you take 'off site and that is where they make their money - 100 submissions per month. @stuck I've modified a bunch of forms I pulled from JOTFORM. I'm only able to do it because I understand the HTML. Knowing javascript does me NO GOOD modifying form fields, sizes, values and moving them where I want on the page. Moving the proper HTML code to the right place is the ONLY way to modify the form. 'javascript' pages don't exist - 'javascript' is code that is embedded inside HTML documents. javascript is not that much different from java, which as David is sucessfully proving to me - java is not that much different than ObjC. HTML is a unique animal, it's old and it's been relatively unchanged because it is THE CORE foundation of the internet.

Excellent points, @ATRAIN53!

thanks for the replies. I have been asking a lot of questions in jotform relating to html changes etc to achieve certain effects and they are very helpful, see this thread. http://www.jotform.com/answers/113256-Add-Categories-to-Purchase-Order. Although I'm no html coder I have a basic understanding of how it operates therefore I feel comfortable moving code around etc. I have managed to import the unchanged version and move the code around to achieve what I was asking hence why I thought about learning javascript to enhance it but think I will start with html if that's what you guys suggest. any good html courses online you can recommend? just so I get a handle on it.

Here's a good course I took! https://tutsplus.com/course/30-days-to-learn-html-and-css/ Mark

@GoNorthWest thanks I will start with it tomorrow. Is it free and is it all video tutorials?

Yes, and yes!

"HTML is a unique animal, it's old and it's been relatively unchanged because it is THE CORE foundation of the internet." Funny, html5 is the new cutting edge in development and it's STILL just relatively unchanged html! A few elements dropped, a few elements added. Amazing.

ok. on your advice I will get html under my belt before attempting javascript then. Thanks so much for all suggestions they will get me on back on the right track. @GoNorthWest thanks again for link. looking forward to getting started.

Two years on from the post, but for reference for extreme newbies, I have used this - http://www.codecademy.com - it's free and proving useful. Very simple and good at handholding. Goes well with GoNorthwest's suggestion of - https://tutsplus.com/course/30-days-to-learn-html-and-css/ ...there is good free stuff out there for learning HTML Al