Jan
29
Why Learn HTML Code?
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Why Learn HTML?
In today’s world, governed by the Internet, everybody wants to build a website, and the major question comes in: How? The research begins, most of the times on the same media you’re trying to break in, and you end up with more questions than answers. How should you handle this amount of information? The opinions of those that are already in are always different and you end up lost like in the beginning.
This might happen because the answer to the questions “should I learn HTML code or just use a WYSIWYG editor? What’s better for me?” depends most on your expectations, needs and intentions and not only on the characteristics of the tools available. While some people prefer to measure things using a square rule because they have more uses, others prefer the standard rule because it’s more portable. Each object has its advantages and disadvantages and you can’t say exactly which one of them is better. So, to clear the things out, let’s look at the differences between HTML and WYSIWYG editors.
Time to learn
This is the biggest advantage of WYSIWYG editors because building a website with them is easier and more intuitive. Who ever wrote a letter in a text editor or drawn an image in a picture editor knows what this means. For those who have never used them, it’s like opening a website in your navigator and be able to click the text and start editing it, changing the size, the color, moving images, changing them, etc., all through clicks, tool bars and menus.
In the other hand, writing HTML tends to be more complicated, even when it’s an easy language. HTML is a markup language, and the reason why it’s easier than other languages is that the resulting web page is interpreted by a code (it has no cycles, no functions, no changing variables). Anyway, learning HTML may give you long term advantages once you’ve passed through the learning experience.
Time to build
This is a diffuse point, given that many people think that the method they use is better and faster. The truth is that this time depends a lot on the expertise level of the designer but, even when the difference could be depreciable, it’s more probable that a web page could be finished faster with a WYSIWYG editor.
Knowledge
Even when knowledge can be acquired anywhere (if you know how), in this case HTML offers more chances of expanding your mind and rise up your intellectual coefficient. It’s a good point if you’re trying to learn beyond of it. HTML coding will give you practice while, as it’s an easy language, will introduce you to the programming world (also a part of the web design and development).
Portability
While HTML code can be written in any text editor, even the most basic one, you cannot build a website in a WYSIWYG editor if you don’t have the editor. This may become a portability problem for those who don’t know HTML because they will need to have the editor installed in the computer they want to use to build, modify or update a web page (no matter how big or little the update is).
Code standards
When using a WYSIWYG editor, the web page is constructed by the user in a visual way that’s translated to HTML code by the editor engine. This means that the direct responsible of writing the HTML code is the editor, even when the directives are imparted by the designer. This many times makes that the web pages have incorrect, malformed or non-standard code, and very often additional (not wished) meta tag code.
When using HTML, the only person that decides which code goes and which code doesn’t, is the designer. You have the liberty and authority of choosing how the code will be written in your HTML document, if it will respect the standards, if it will be accessible, and many more.
Reach
How far can you go building websites through WYSIWYG editors? Well, as far as the program lets you. Today’s WYSIWYG editors bring easy and advanced solutions to designers incorporating markup languages, server-side languages, client-side languages, plug-ins and more. This will help designers to build up web pages and fill them with effects, functionalities and interactivity. This is good, and is very good if you’re not intended to go to a higher level, given that the functions provided by the editor (or by other sources) will work great with your expectations.
In the other hand, HTML is just HTML, but if you’re visionary, you’ll see that HTML is the doorway to further learning which will have, as we mentioned before, a long term benefit. The best thing of knowing HTML, as any other language, is that you’re not limited to the number of functions that the editor has to offer. You can always create your own customizable functions and code, which will look and feel exactly as you wish them to do.
Credibility
If you’re working for, or trying to catch a client, it’s not that same to say that you know and handle HTML that say that you only can use a WYSIWYG editor. Knowing HTML gives you an extra point: credibility.
A third option comes in if you decide to learn both of them. Most WYSIWYG editors have the option of parallel edition of the HTML code which opens a new possibility. Anyway, you can always modify the HTML files generated by the editor. This way you can get the benefits of both.
In conclusion, the best way to follow depends on your intentions. HTML, harder to learn but more customizable and independent, or WYSIWYG editors, easier but more editor-dependent. If your intention is to “just design a website” then you may find a WYSIWYG editor good enough, but if you’re looking serious to the web design then HTML is a must.
Article Author: Diego Ponce de León from: www.HTMLQuick.com
Article Source: www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/why-to-learn-html-code-90946.html
Jan
20
Author: Timothy Aaron Whiston
To learn HTML you must first understand the basic structure of this markup language. This article will get you ready to dive right in and start working with HTML to build your own great Website.
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the most basic code for formatting Web documents and instructing Web browsers on the display of these documents. HTML components are, in many ways, the building blocks of the Web.
It’s not particularly difficult to learn HTML code. In fact I like to say that it’s a lot easier than learning to read and write the English language; this gives people a solid reference point and allows them to feel more comfortable moving forward.
To learn HTML effectively, you simply need to look at the process like learning a new, basic language. It’s all about memorizing a range of alphanumeric codes and understanding how and where to apply these pieces of code.
HTML Tags
HTML tags are the most basic element of the language. Think of a tag like a single command base that is used to define a particular area of your Web page.
Tags are letters and numbers arranged within the greater and lesser symbols on your keyboard. For example, here is a body tag:
< BODY >
This tag tells a browser the main body of your Web page will appear below. The above tag is an opening tag, because it signals the start of the BODY section.
At the end of your page body, you would close this tag, thus signaling to the browser that it is finished reading the Web page body. A closing tag includes the trailing slash character like so:
< / BODY >
So you open a particular tag to mark the start of a new area, effect, or behavior. You then close the tag to indicate the end of this area, effect, or behavior.
This is all really quite simple once you get rolling. Now that you understand how to open and close tags, you just need to learn the HTML that goes inside that tag placements.
There are tags that dictate the start and stop of the document head and body. And there are tags that mark where tables, columns, rows, forms, paragraphs, horizontal lines, images, and links begin and end.
As you learn HTML you will also discover that different tags can be used to begin and end specific behavior for fonts and other elements on your page. Everything in your HTML document starts and stops through the use of tags.
HTML Attributes
You can think of HTML attributes as specific characteristics assigned to a tag. For instance, going back to our body tag above, you may want to use an attribute to create a green page background like so:
< BODY bg=”green” >
Attributes can be added to any HTML tag in an effort to enhance the basic format and display of the provided code. Attributes often are what create bold text, highlighted text background, row and column width and height, and many other specific effects seen on the page.
Now that you have the basic structure of the HTML language in mind, all you need to do is learn the specific HTML variable. Again, this is easier than memorizing the alphabet so you have more than enough brainpower to take care of the task at hand.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/learn-html-understanding-the-basic-structure-644819.html