Hey guys, I'm currently studying for my Bachelor's Degree in Web Development. Right now, I have experience with HTML5 and CSS3. I do intend on becoming certified with these languages, as well as JavaScript, iQuery, XML, and PHP through W3Schools, but as of now I haven't studied these languages in-depth.
Basically, I've recently been trying to get into the game by researching the latest practices that modern web designers/developers use today, and I quite frankly feel overwhelmed at the moment. For example, I've seen that many web designers/developers create their mock-ups in a PSD, and then convert the final product to HTML (most of them using a 960Grid.gs template). This seems the way to go for "hand-coding" now-a-days, or so it seems to me. I have even seen tools such as less or sass that some web developers use (that I know nothing about), as well as MANY other tools.
But then there is the CMS landslide, such as WordPress/Joomla/Drupal. I have zero experience with these systems, but it seems to be the first choice people jump to now-a-days (I'm assuming for the sake of the client updating their own content?).
And then of course there is database development to learn.
My questions to any professional designers/developers here are...
1) Are the assumptions that I made about hand-coding and CMS-usage accurate?
2) How do you decide between hand-coding(such as PSD to HTML) and CMS's?
3) From start to finish, what tools do you use throughout the entire process of your clients' design?
4) And most importantly, where do you recommend that I start with all of this overwhelming information? Should I get used to hand-coding PSD to HTML mock-ups, and then learn CMS's afterwards?
*Sorry for this blast of text, I'm just a current web development student feeling a little overwhelmed right now. I still have some tutorials that I'm going to work through, and a lot more courses to complete before I'm even done with school, but I'm at that stage where I want to know everything to expect while striving to excel in this field.