Website Basics

All websites are constructed from Hyper Text Mark-up Languange (HTML). Cascading style sheets may also be used to control the appearance of text and other objects. Javascript can be incorporated to do other things that HTML can't do.

Although there are a variety of code generators available, the best practice is to use a text editor such as a Notepad or Coffee Cup to avoid browser conflicts and unnecessary code.

There are a number of resources on the web to learn HTML. A few of those include:

• The W3Schools HTML tutorial;
• The HTML Code Tutorial, the official website of The Idocs Guide to HTML by Miko O'Sullivan;
• Tiztag has a fairly comprehensive tutorial as well.

The first step to designing a website is to decide what information will be provided, and in what order. The power of the web is in the ability to link to other documents, either on the same website, or another one. The first page should have links to other parts of the website, sort of like chapters in a book, but all pages need to have links to navigate back to the beginning, or to other important sections.

The main page of a website is usually called "index.html." All other pages can have any name, and are referenced by that name.

Basic HTML Commands                 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)                FTP