What tools to know for designing?

What tools should one focus on learning to get into designing web pages? Flash? Dreamweaver? Photoshop? Fireworks? A combination of all? What do most designers use?

I use Dreamweaver for html and Photoshop for images.

I use a text editor designed for programmers.. on Windows, I use Crimson Editor (which is free), and on FreeBSD+KDE, I use Kate (also free) As for graphics, I mostly use KPaint (for the simple stuff), and GIMP for the more complicated stuff. In Windows, I used MS Paint and MS Photo Editor.

But, if you are looking at getting into web design.. the first thing you'll want is to study HTML and CSS. Even if you do end up using a wysiwyg editor, or some other web authoring software that does most everything for you.. having some familiarity with the languages will be of tremendous benefit.

code editing:
dreamweaver. [macromedia]
but definitely learn to hand code html and css and javascript.
this can be done in something as simple as notepad.
[golive is adobes version of dreamweaver]

graphics: [adobe]
photoshop.
use the 'save for web' function for all web graphics.
imageready will slice up larger graphics if you need to go that route. i rarely use it though.
[fireworks is macromedias version of photoshop]

multimedia:
flash [macromedia]
animations, sound, intelligent complex navigation.

audio:
sound forge [sony]
audio editing.

these are not necessarily all the products available. they are simply my favorites and the ones i use on a regular basis.

i would start out and get a solid base and understanding of HTML via hand coding in something like notepad so that you understand the concepts of web design

then once you know what youre doin use dreamweaver to speed things up

some people do the opposite and start with dreamweaver but honestly i think this will get you into bad habits...there are too many people out there who spend 400$ on dreamweaver and instantly think they are web developers

as for graphics photshop is the industy's leading tool...working with professional graphic designers who also have fireworks, etc. there is nothing that compares to photoshop. it costs somewhere around $700 which is pretty steep for someone starting out but thats the one to learn...adobe offeres an abreviated version called photoshop elements that might be good to start out and check out the power of photoshop

just my 2 cents

good lucky and rock on!!

I started off using Frontpage *eeeekkk* years ago when I didn't have a clue about web design. I strongly recommend you DO NOT use this! I quickly moved to a text editor / compiler Emacs (UNIX... I believe there is a Windows version -XEmacs) It presents your code using different colours to highlight tables, images etc - perfect for beginners IMO.

I now use Dreamweaver which appears to be very popular - I like the view source and code option. As someone has already mentioned, it speeds the whole process up.

I use Fireworks for graphics (haven't got a Photoshop licence at work!) and I use Irfanview (a free program) for batch converting images and creating icons.

I also use SwishMax which is a 'cheats' Flash program!!

Good luck!

Three for HTML based web :

• Macromedia Dreamweaver [must have!]
• Adobe Photoshop [must have!]
• Adobe ImageReady [or Fireworx]

Two for Flash based web :
• Flash MX [of course, dah!...]
• Adobe Photoshop [must have]

And of course, inspiration and some skills ...

uhm, maybe you would start by learning about Graphic design first. Read about it, look at sites you like.

also check out www.alistapart.com and www.zeldman.com.

and last but not least, learn the important question: WHY.

100% true

If you want to create flash movies, but don't want to spend so much money on flash mx, get swish, as Dookiedude said. It also makes making flash movies very simple and easy.

I too use dreamweaver and for graphics, fireworks!