I am now an advanced user of xhtml and css and I want to learn php. I started to look at w3c.org and was learning some of the code. But I cannot view it in the editor, in view mode. There is a discussion concerning loading software on your machine and I am totally lost.

Tell me, what do I have to do, in order to see what I written works? Do I have to load it onto my host? Can you give me some direction? PHP is totally new to me. Also I was told by a professional web designer, to not waste my time with javascript and go right to php. So that is what I am doing, I just need a little nudge here.

You can either use your hosting server and FTP the files up for testing. You can have the HTML editor and an ftp client running to upload and test. Or you can install WAMP on your local PC and test locally on your computer.
http://www.wampserver.com/en/

My vote is for wamp also, I went that route a few months ago and immediately thought, "I should have done this years ago".

In editor I set up a website project with the wamp/www directory, so whenever i start the editor, all my sites are available to recycle code, also when working on a page, a quick CTL+S in the editor and then refresh the page in a browser gives immediate results. Simpler than uploading to a host and testing live.

Any possibility to get some hand holding here for how to set this up? I have it installed, but I've no clue even where to get to the settings to set it up to work with my current site projects in HTML Editor. Might help some others too

You have to put all your projects in the WAMP www folder in order for it to work out of the box. Here is an article explaining how to create an alias.

http://www.webdesign.org/web-programming/php/configure-a-virtual-directory-using-wamp.16605.html

When wamp is installed it creates a www folder within the wamp folder in the c drive. In the www folder create folder/s for the various sites you are going to test with. I use the actual domain name/s for the folders.

When you installed wamp there should be a desktop icon for it. Double click that the get the local servers running.

There now should be a wamp icon in your tray. Click it normally to open. See attached gif. Click the localhost and that will open your default browser wamp server page. There is then a menu of all you can do there with links to any active sites you have installed in the www folder.

Works great and pretty easy to use.

Hope the above is clearer than mud..

PS: I use wamp mostly for two sites that are cms type data base driven AND I use if for SCC for five different carts. For the SCC I just export for later uploading to the appropriate www folder in wamp.

It's pretty clear I think, but I'm wondering, is it possible to use the directories I have already setup in my projects area where i keep all my websites that I'm working on rather than having to move them to a different location? Also, if I move them to this www folder, what happens to them if I uninstall the program and I don't remember to take them out of there? Will they be deleted or is the www folder left remaining after the uninstall? Not that I will probably be uninstalling if it works, but just curious if anyone knows as I know my brain and it's a good bet I'll forget to remove something from some program or another's directory when uninstalling lol.

I "think" I got it, thanks Tom for that link, that helped tremendously and I was able to setup a directory that already existed using that info. Cross your fingers lol, it might blow up!

Jo Ann, they stay in the www folder of wamp until you decide to delete them. With SCC I keep the shops in their normal project save folders that CoffeCup uses and just export the finished/working on shops to the www folder.

Remember, wamp installs a complete web server setup on your local machine. Working on the files and folders are much the same as when you have uploaded to an external on the net server.

I suggest you just export one of your shops that you have to a folder in the www and play with it. I can almost promise without fear you will come to love the design and test capabilities it provides.