Learn HTML before you make a page.
So you want to create a web site! It must be easy, there are all those instant web page programs out there, right? Before you go out and buy Microsoft's Front Page, or use Netscape's Composer, take your preferred browser, turn off pictures, sounds, animations, javascript, and anything else you can find. Then go surf the web. Looks nice, hmmm? Lots of blank boxes and blank pages. That's what happens when people who don't understand HTML write pages.
Don't just go out and get a program, learn how it works. You can use a good HTML program to keep track of your site, to make things easier, to automatically change links, and so forth. But you'll never have a good site if you don't know what you are doing. If you don't want to learn HTML, then hire someone - and test them first. Sit your potential web-site manager down at your computer and open a text editor like notepad (or the equivalent in your operating system). Don't let them near MS Office or anything else which will "save in HTML format". Then give them a sheet of paper with a few short paragraphs, a table, and maybe a short list on it. Tell them to type you a simple web page from nothing, on a text editor. If they can't do it, don't hire them. Would you hire an architect whose only qualification was knowing how to run a CAD program?
If you want a good site, learn enough HTML to do make it browsable for the whole web population. Or hire someone who does know. HTML is easy, really, it's basically just markup tags such as <P> to start a paragraph and <h1> for a big title, <h2> for smaller titles, <b> for bold text, and so on. Not very difficult at all. I recommend you look it over, even if you decide to eventually hire someone, it's always a good idea to have knowledge of what your employees are doing. After you've learned some HTML, I have some HTML tricks and tips you might find helpful.
Just for amusement, I made a page that misuses (or abuses) background and font colors, tables and table borders. So if you'd like to see what I consider really bad use of HTML tags, take a look
HTML
- Bare Bones Guide to HTML
- Available in several languages. Great for beginners.
- A Beginner's Guide to HTML
- NCSA's HTML Primer - a really good beginner's resource.
- How do they do that with HTML?
- FAQ on Web page creation. Good for beginners to intermediate.
- Web Design Group
- The WDG offers material on a wide range of HTML related topics. One of my favorites. A bit on the technical side, but understandable by a beginner.
- Composing Good HTML
- For more advanced HTML learning - gets into somewhat more complex issues.
- W3 - the definitive links
- The World Wide Web consortium site contains an overview of HTML , links to the official HTML 4.0 specification, as well as earlier versions (HTML 3.2, HTML 2.0, and so on). This is where you go for the official information.
- Comprehensive HTML Cross Reference - Willcam Group
- If you want a handy tag reference try this. when I was first learning, I kept it up in a window and checked on it constantly. Eventually, I memorized it, but it was very useful when I was still learning.
- HTML Reference
- A free download of a windows help file for HTML. Author wants your name and e-mail, please don't put false info in if you don't wish to supply the info, he will freely accept "none".
- http://validator.w3.org/
- A service for validating HTML markup in an HTML document. Online only. Will tell you what you've done wrong and where you've made the error.
- Spyglass
- HTML Validator (Win NT/95 only) program. Downloadable, free, but no longer supported. Useful for checking basic HTML. Does not work with later HTML, such as HTML 4.0. I'm including it, because it is useful when you are first starting (before you get into the more advance tags).
- The W3C Resource page
- Tools for testing HTML, links to other information and help.
Some of the more advanced parts of HTML might require separate tutorials, I needed one on both tables and forms. I also went through the frames, even though I've never really found any need to use them.
Tables
- Table Sampler
- A Tutorial by Example. A bit basic, but good for beginners.
- Table Tutor
- by Joe Barta - Professional Web Design. Joe does a lot of tutorials, they are all pretty good, and I've linked a number on this page
Forms
- Form Tutor by Joe Barta
- Easy to understand form tutorial. Forms are useful in a lot of situations.
Frames
- Frames - An Introduction by Netscape.
- They started it, you might as well go to the source. Frames are overused, especially by sites that want to keep you, whether you like it or not (they will send you off their site with their fram still attached).
- Frames Tutor
- Easy tutorial for frames beginners.
- Frames Tutorial
- by Charles Douglas Rose, A bit more in-depth than Joe's tutorials.
- Guide to Frames Usage
- Gets fairly technical. But these are things you need to know if you use frames (as opposed to misusing them).
META Tags
- A Dictionary of HTML META Tags
- Meta tags are those handy little things at the top that search engines, spiders, browser and other web programs use - they can do anything from redirecting the page to telling your browser to reload. They are also used for the keywords that search engines need to see.
Programs
- Coming Soon
- But learn the html first!