Topic: good web design - help!

Hello to everyone & thanks in advance could someone shed some insight?

I have some experience with hard coding basic HTML (enough to get by). I work a little bit with FP & Dreamweaver. I am graphic designer by trade but want to get more involved with web page design. I want to get the best handle on how to go about doing this properly ? but where to start?

If I take classes what comes first? I do not know how to work with CSS, would like to learn flash? I don?t want to get ahead of myself and want to start from the beginning so I have a solid base to build up from ? HELP!!

Well, a good solid foundation is HTML is essential, IMO. With that, of course, is a need for good ability with CSS.

The Gurus Network has some great CSS tutorials -
http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/coding/css/

You'll want to get familiar with XHTML as well. A good brief intro - http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/coding/xhtml/

You want to be familiar with the issues of web standards, and the drive for 'semantically correct' markup.
http://www.alistapart.com is a great place for all kinds of good info on such things, and a whole lot more.

Flash is something that can be a great asset, but all to often is nothing but wasted bandwidth. For me, it is best to exhaust other alternatives before using Flash in a web page. The GN also has some great Flash tutorials that will be helpful.

Getting to some server side stuff (most notably PHP/MySQL) is a good idea, allowing you to set up and work with template driven sites and the like. (again, the GN...)

Also, I have always found this to be a great read -
http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorial/wbtgd/