Web Designing Tutorials

This post is a continuation from my October 31, 2009 post.  Tip #1 is about using WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) HTML editors.  They include those that you can purchase such Dreamweaver, Contribute, FrontPage and Coffee Cup or many FREE editors such as Dynamic HTML Editor or Eclipse.  You can Google Visual HTML Editor and cruise around to see what you can find.  No matter which editor you choose, realize that they are not perfect in their code creation.  HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is just that, a Markup language that for the most part just provides the style and location of text and images on a page for a Website.  The more sophisticated editors such as Dreamweaver can create a site that incorporates other scripting such as Javascript, CSS and even FLASH along with the HTML.  As the editors get more sophisticated, the more training in the use of the software that is required.

No matter which editor you select, you should take the time to pick up some basic books on HTML, CSS, and Javascript.  Not so much to become an expert, but to learn some basics so you can understand a little about the code that is being created by the editor.  In this way, if something goes astray, you can take a look at the underlying coding the editor has created, and just maybe find what might be causing your issue.

Even though I am formerly trained with all the coding, I will work in a split view, both visual and code so I can take advantage of both worlds while making sure I am in the correct locations for editing and placement of certain things.  Let’s face it, in many respects it is faster to let the editor do the work rather than typing in a long string of code manually, but I do keep an eye on it and can place things or correct things as I go along.

A basic series of books you can use are the SAMS “Teach Yourself…..” that all relate to Web Design.  They will not make you an expert by all means, but they are pretty straight forward and provide you with a good foundation for learning some HTML, CSS, and  JavaScript which are the most used languages in the HTML Visual Editors you will find.

Most people are aware that people are using a variety of different Internet Browsers to search or cruse the Net.  The important consideration for Web Designers and Website Owners, is the fact that Internet Browsers will render pages differently depending on their interpretation of the underlying code used to develop the site.  Of course Microsoft Internet Explorer has the lead for a browser that is used most often.  Of my client sites that I provide Traffic Monitoring services, 60 to 80 percent of all users visiting their sites are using Internet Explorer, with 26 to 12 percent using Mozilla’s Firefox and the remainder coming from browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Opera and others.  With that said, your Website should render equally well in Internet Explorer and Firefox at minimum.  I personally, review my client sites in about 5 different browsers.  If your site does not render well in a particular browser that could result in a lost client or customer.

Here is another blog article Firefox Compatibility Becomes More Important Than Ever which addresses this subject and will help in shedding light on the issue.