Simple Coding Tutorial!

[Joseph]

Non-Code Notes

This area contains items which do not specifically apply to HTML coding itself, but which are somewhat related (I think most of them are third cousins.).


VIEWER ASSUMPTIONS



These tutorials make a few assumptions -- nothing big. I'll tell you what they are, just to make sure we're on the same track. I assume you have a basic-to-average knowledge of computers, your preferred operating system (e.g., Windows __), and your internet browser(s). That last one shouldn't be too hard -- you made it to this page, didn't you? 8-) Anyway, I won't ask you to configure your computer for the fastest performance, but I'll expect you to know what a "right-click" is, how to use folders/directories, etc -- you get the idea. If you don't know about a certain phrase or concept, though, feel free to ask me about it. If you're still a bit shaky on all this internet stuff, LearnTheNet should be a great resource for you. It has info and tips about browsers, E-mail, newsgroups, and many other aspects of the internet.


AN OVERVIEW OF THE INTERNET



A large part of the internet is accessed through browsers, which is what you're looking at this webpage from. The most popular by far are Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, and Mozilla Firefox. If you make your site look good on these, it will look right for the vast majority of viewers. Don't worry -- this isn't hard to do; there are just a few small differences between the browsers, mostly at the advanced coding level. You can have both browsers on your computer at the same time; in fact, that's a good idea, so you'll know what your website looks like on each one. You can download them for free from the links above. They may take quite a while on a slower modem, but if you're serious about making websites, they're a must-have.


BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE WEB

WYSIWYG editors can be a real pain at times; I know from experience. I created a website using Netscape Composer, and on a 600x800 resolution it looked fine. When I tried it on any other resolution, though, the text and graphics didn't look right at all. I had to hand-code it to remedy the problem.

How are web pages made? The two most basic and common methods are (1) What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) editors and (2) HTML. WYSIWYG (pronounced "wussy-wig" for those of you who enjoy saying complicated acronyms) is a type of visual editor, sorta' like a word-processing document's half-brother. You can edit the layout of your pictures, text, etc in the editor with ease, while the program makes the HTML code behind the scenes. The downside of this is that WYSIWYG editors are notorious for terribly ugly code. You won't want to use WYSIWYG for one part of a webpage and then hand-edit the HTML later, or else you'll have to wade through a lot of redundant, poorly-spaced (read: crammed-together) code. Besides this, a WYSIWYG editor, despite the name, does not always lay the page out exactly as you tell it to; the actual page could show up differently in a browser than in your editing window.

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, which is techno-speak for "the language you write webpages in." Unlike WYSIWYG, it will be much more likely to make the page appear exactly how you want it. While taking somewhat longer to learn than a visual editor, HTML really doesn't take too long to pick up; you can do a lot more with it, too. Stay tuned, read the upcoming tutorials, and you'll be well on your way to becoming a website guru!