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Hello.
Well, about a week ago or so I started learning about web design as well as web development, because a friend asked if I would design a website for a business he was starting. I gladly accepted, because I have always wanted to try my hand at web design/development.

I first obtained Dreamweaver, and a long tutorial on it, html, and CSS from lynda.com. It taught me a LOT, but lately I feel as though I'll never be able to design an enchanting website like many that I see around me. I understand that many developers have had years of experience, and look at me, with only ten days or so. Am I being too hard on myself? I devote about five hours a day to learning about different things concerning web design/development such as SEO, Photoshop, Fireworks, CSS, XHTML, and soon will start learning about MySQL and PHP.

I've been tinkering with templates from oswd.org and templatemonster, but I can't seem ever to edit the CSS to make it look how I want, position the elements how I want, ect. It really discourages me >.> The problem is that I feel that because I did not write the CSS + layout, I don't really have a feel for it. I spend at least an hour trying to figure out which CSS rules go to which DIVs and how they relate to each other, and even then, I can't manipulate the code to do what I want.

Am I silly for feeling disappointed in myself? I'd like some advice from people with experience.

Well, Dreamweaver is a good start. That's how I started and about 60% of the time when designing a website, that's what I use. A lot of people are heavily against it and say it give bloated code, which, it kind of does. But, when going off a template, it's great. It allows you to see your changes as you are making them without having to upload to the server.

Best advise for you...just keep going. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will your web design skills be built in just a couple of weeks. Even people that have been doing this for years learn something new about web design every time they design a site. I'd stick to getting the XHTML and CSS down pretty decent, then go from there. Take a look at w3schools and knock out their tutorials. Then do them again, and again, and a few more times, until you can do it that element without having to reference the tutorial at all. That may take you a couple days, but, it'll be well worth it. After you get to where you want to start learning PHP/SQL download something like Joomla or a script of some sort and start looking at the code and how it does different things.

Really, just keep at it. That's all the advice anyone can give you really. It's like learning a foreign language. How was it like when you learned Sweedish? It wasn't a 2 week affair, and you still learn new things all the time right?

Just keep trying dude you will get there eventually.

I been doing all my own designing for almost 4 years now. I still suck. It takes time and dedication. Just stick with it and don't be discouraged. You will see improvements eventually.

I know how you feel. It is frustrating when your expectations of yourself don't match up with your technical quickness.
The key is not to dwell on such frustration and impatience; instead to soldier on with practicing diligently. Good wishes.