Updated: Who Needs University? The Best Nettuts+ Screencast Training Courses


Education is expensive…very expensive! But, luckily, 95% of the tutorials and courses on Nettuts+ are free! And, should you require more training, a Tuts+ premium subscription is extremely cheap, at only $9 per month. Alternatively, you can purchase a wide selection of screencasts, eBooks, and tutorials on the Tuts+ marketplace. Whether you’re hoping to learn jQuery, WordPress, CSS, Tumblr, ASP.NET, PHP, CodeIgniter, or JavaScript, we’ve got you covered!

1. Diving Into PHP

Diving Into PHP

Just as with the “jQuery for Absolute Beginners” series, you’ll start from scratch and slowly work your way up to some more advanced PHP topics; this is another incredible series that first aired on the ThemeForest Blog.

The Complete Series

2. Magento for Designers

Magento for Designers

Magento is a stunningly powerful e-commerce platform. In celebration of ThemeForest’s new Magento category, this mini-series will you teach how to get started with the platform: you’ll get to know the terminologies and learn how to set up a store and all related aspects of it; finally you’ll learn how to customize it to make it your very own.

The Complete Series

3. JavaScript from Null

JavaScript from Null

Thanks to the wide adoption of libraries like jQuery and Mootools, JavaScript’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last few years. However, in the process, an interesting thing occurred: many newer developers are learning these libraries without taking the time to actually learn about raw JavaScript techniques. What percentage of jQuery users don’t know how to fade out an element with only raw JS? My guess is that it’s much higher than many would think.

If you want to truly understand the library you’re working with, and improve your skill-set, it’s vital that you learn the fundamentals of raw JavaScript. And this series will teach you what you need to know!

The Complete Series

4. Tumblr Theme Design – Start to Finish (Premium or Tuts+ Marketplace)

Tumblr Theme Design – Start to Finish (Premium)

Tumblr’s popularity over the last year has increased exponentially. The reason why is quite simple: Tumblr is flexible, powerful, and, most importantly, a pleasure to work with. Unfortunately, there aren’t many training resources available for the platform yet. In this video series, we’ll go through the process of taking a Tumblr theme, designed in Photoshop, and converting it into a fully working theme – in just a few hours.

The Complete Series

If you’re not already a Nettuts+ Premium member, you’ll want to sign up to get this course. You can view an introduction to it here.

Alternatively, you can purchase this series on the Tuts+ marketplace.

  • Chapter 1: Intro
  • Chapter 2: Slicing the Design
  • Chapter 3: Creating the Markup and Adding the Tumblr Template Tags
  • Chapter 4: Adding the CSS
  • Chapter 5: Configuration Options
  • Chapter 6: @Font-Face and Custom Fonts
  • Chapter 7: Slide-out Panel – HTML and CSS
  • Chapter 8: Slide-out Panel – jQuery

5. CodeIgniter from Scratch

CodeIgniter from Scratch

After numerous requests, we launched a new screencast series on Nettuts+ that will focus exclusively on the CodeIgniter PHP framework. Over the course of 15 videos (so far!), you’ll learn how to use this framework.

The Complete Series

6. Regular Expressions for Dummies

If there’s one topic that most people agree is difficult to get into, it’s regular expressions. But fear not: you’ll get comfortable using this sometimes-confusing technology with these five screencasts.

The Complete Series

You can see the whole series here, and this is what you’ll get:

7. CSS: Noob to Ninja (Premium or Tuts+ Marketplace)

This exclusive premium video series will take you from a state of absolute CSS “noobness,” all the way up to ninja-status, capable of taking advantage of the latest CSS3 techniques. The series begins with the basics: the syntax, properties, etc. However, each new video expands upon the previous, as you work your way up and improve your skills.

The Complete Series

This series is for Premium members, but if you aren’t familiar with CSS, there’s no better way to learn! Get it here!

Alternatively, you can purchase this series on the Tuts+ marketplace.

  • Part 1: Preparation
  • Part 2: CSS Properties
  • Part 3: Typography
  • Part 4: Floats
  • Part 5: Positioning
  • Part 6: Semantics, List Items, and Menus
  • Part 7: CSS Organizational Techniques
  • Part 8: Rounded Corners, Box Shadows, and Text Shadows
  • Part 9: CSS3 Gradients
  • Part 10: Custom Fonts with @font-face
  • Part 11: Taking Advantage of CSS Frameworks
  • Part 12: Extending CSS with LESS

8. jQuery for Absolute Beginners

jQuery for Absolute Beginners

So, everywhere you look, you see “jQuery this” and “jQuery that.” For the last year or so, this library has been the darling of the JavaScript world. But do you feel that you just can’t seem to learn the dang thing? Do you hate how the existing tutorials assume that you know WAY more than you actually do? If this rings true for you, I can help: check out the jQuery for absolute beginners series that first showed on the old ThemeForest Blog, and has since joined the Nettuts’ arsenal.

The Complete Series

9. WordPress for Designers

If you want to get into the WordPress community, we’ve got a great way to start: the WordPress for Designers series, from the old Themeforest Blog. You’ll learn everything from installing the platform to slicing a PSD file and turning it into a complete theme.

The Complete Series

10. The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Design and Converting it to HTML and CSS

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Design and Converting it to HTML and CSS

This was a multi-part series across the Tuts+ sites, which demonstrated how to build a beautiful home page for a fictional business. We learned how to create the wireframe on Vectortuts+; we added color, textures, and effects on Psdtuts+; and we took our completed PSD, and converted it into a nicely coded HTML and CSS website.

The Complete Series

11. ASP.NET from Scratch

ASP.NET from Scratch

Nettuts+ is primarily a PHP haven; however, I’m sure we can all agree that there are many fantastic, and technically more powerful languages and frameworks at our disposal. Jeremy McPeak, author of Professional AJAX, and Beginning JavaScript: 4th Edition, will teach you how to build ASP.NET applications from scratch over the course of the next several video tutorials. Enjoy!

The Series Thus Far

12. Become a Master of Object-Oriented Programming in PHP (Tuts+ Marketplace)

Become a Master of Object-Oriented Programming in PHP (Tuts+ Marketplace)

Though not free, this in depth video series, split into three parts ($3 per set), we’ll demonstrate exactly how to get up and running with OOP techniques. And more importantly, we’ll focus on a real world application, rather than confusing unrelated metaphors.

The Full Series

  1. Chapter 1 – Introduction and OOP First Steps
  2. Chapter 2 – What are Objects and Classes. What’s the relationship between the two.
  3. Chapter 3 – How to Perfectly Document your Code with DocBlocks
  4. Chapter 4 – What is Encapsulation
  5. Chapter 5 – The Static Keyword
  6. Chapter 6 – Inheritance / Creating Child Classes
  7. Chapter 7 – Building a MySQL Wrapper Class (Parts 1 and 2)
  8. Chapter 8, 9, 10, 11 – Building a MySQL DB Class from Scratch

13. Dissecting jQuery

Dissecting jQuery

Sporadically, over the course of each month, we’ll post a “Dissecting jQuery” video quick tip. The idea behind these is that we’ll take a single chunk of the jQuery source at a time, break it down, and determine exactly what’s going on under the hood, so to speak. Then, with that knowledge, we’ll learn how to better utilize the library in our coding. Today, we’ll review filters.

The Series Thus Far

  1. Filters
  2. Grep
  3. Text

You’ll be a Pro in No Time!

Well, now you’re well on your way to becoming a well-trained web developer. What’s your favorite tutorial here on Nettuts+? Let us know in the comments!

If you enjoyed these screencasts over the last year or so, and would like to give back to Nettuts+, please do consider signing up for a Premium Tuts+ subscription. In addition to helping us out, you’ll gain access to source files, extra advanced tutorials and video series, and freebies…from all of the Tuts+ sites!

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