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how to learn to make web pages.

What makes web pages?

Web pages are made with two languages: HTML code and CSS code.
These two languages work together to tell the web browser how to show the web page.

• HTML code is the language that makes the structure of the web page.
  <p> says "this is a paragraph".
  <h1> says "this is a level 1 header".
• HTML codes are called tags.
  They are always made with < and >
• CSS code is the language that makes the style (design)
  color: #cc0000; says that something shall be red.
  width: 100px; says that something shall be 100 pixels wide.
• CSS codes are called rules.
  They are always made with the pattern
  property: value;
  (Notice ':' after the property, and ';' to end the rule)

But what is "code"?

Code is instructions to a program on the computer. There are many different languages of code, that tell different programs on the computer what to do. We can write these codes in any text editor.

"HTML" and "CSS" are two kinds of code. They tell the web browser program how to display the web page.

How do i learn to make this code?

What program do i need to make web pages on my computer?

Three programs:

1. a text editor (NotePad or TextPad or your choice on MSWindows, pico or vi or your choice on linux)
2. a web browser (Firefox is the best.)
3. your file manager ("My Computer" or "My Documents" on MSWindows, Nautilus or the shell on linux, Finder on Macintosh)

and:

• A reference, like the basic html tutorial

You want to have all these four open while you are working on web pages!

Is that all? I thought i needed some big program? Don't i need Dreamweaver or Macromedia Director?

You can use those. But they aren't necessary, and i don't teach them. What a program like Dreamweaver does, is make the html for you. Director specializes in Flash animations, movies, which is a separate subject.

What is text? What is a text editor?

A text editor is a program like Notepad or (better) Notepad++ or vi. It will show you exactly what is in a file.

Try this: open a Word, jpg or gif file, in Notepad++. You will see a lot of strange characters. Those things are not text.

For web pages, we need to have only text.

Isn't html programming?

A little different:
"Programming" (javascript, php, C) tells the computer how to do something.
Html code tells a web browser program how to display something.

There are some basic principles in html, that are also used in programming languages. So learning html can be a good introduction to later learn programming.

What's the process for developing web pages?

1. Make your page in a text editor
2. and then save your file
3. In your web browser, view the file.

then ...

1. Make changes in your text editor
2. and then save your file
3. Reload (refresh) the page in your browser.
4. and repeat!

What should i learn first?

The basic html codes: See the basic html tutorial

The basic template for every web page.

How to fix problems: See the How to fix problems page

Then what?

• "attributes", such as align="right"
• formatting your code.
• always quote attributes.
• follow established w3c standards, then your code will work now and in the future, with all browsers.
• Understand organisation in your filesystem.
• Understand naming your files (only letters, numbers, underscore, period — no spaces or other characters).
• Learn CSS (stylesheet language) for designing your pages.
  Understand that html actually is for describing the structure or parts of a page - the sections, paragraphs, lists, graphics.
  We use CSS (stylesheets) for making how we want the page to look: colors, font sizes and styles, white space, etc.
• Then, learn more complex page design — again using CSS language (stylesheets).

1-how_to_learn_html.html
06 September 2011