Basic Programming for Web Page

Design a web site with quality in mind, write so that people of all education levels can understand, choose your domain name wisely, work with a quality hosting company, and above all, submit, submit, submit!

Basic Programming

When most people hear "programming", they immediately think "difficult." While some types of computer programming is advanced, when it comes to website design, you will discover that the two primary avenues are not difficult at all. These two options include using HTML code or a web page editor (WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get).

Just remember that every advanced, powerful programmer in the world had to start at the beginning just like you!

HTML (HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE)

To design your web page, you can use a text editor such as Note Pad. Even MS Word has an option for saving your coded HTML content in HTML format, simply by going to "File," "Save As," "HTML."

Although the HTML codes will look like a bunch of garbage to you, once uploaded, the codes are read and the document comes alive with color, fonts, spacing, and anything your coding told it to do. You will find books at your local computer store that provide basic HTML instructions. Once you have written one page in HTML, you will be amazed at how easy it really is to work with.

- bold

- italics

- increasing the size of the font to 14

- break at the end of a sentence

- new paragraph

To stop a certain code, it is closed off with </ (whatever the code is) >. For example, if you had written an HTML code for bold, the beginning code would be . Once you get to the end of the word or sentence where you want the bolding to stop, you would end it by typing in </bold>.

Here is an example of a sentence using some of the above codes:

At Bee's Dry Cleaning and Laundry Services, our number one goal is to satisfy customers.

Webpage Editor (WYSIWYG)

Webpage editors are actually quite fun and easy to use. Best of all, you are not required to know programming! A great recommendation is to use a WYSIWYG editor and then learn the HTML coding as you go. The result is that you will learn exactly what it is that webmasters do in their role.

Whether using HTML or a webpage editor, you do not have to run out and buy a special program. Simply visit www.download.com. Typically, these programs are freeware or shareware, which means they cost you nothing. On occasion, you will find a program with a minimal cost but this is rare.

The difference between HTML and WYSIWYG is that with a web editor, you are working with drop down menus, just as you would find in a word processing program. In other words, you do not have to mess with any codes! If you want something bolded, you simply press the bold button on the toolbar or go to "File," "Format," "Font," and then "Bold", just like you would in Word, WordPerfect, or Note Pad."

Following are a few free downloads that would be excellent choices:

HTML

WYSIWYG Webpage Editor