Moving a step further...

On my last post, we were able to create a basic page just to see something work. You may have not understood some of the processes involved or the tags used in the code(I mean all he less and greater than sign <, > with the forward slashes /)

Syntax

Just like in English Language, HTML has Syntax. Syntax is a set of rules that govern the arrangement of elements in a document. Our document here is our HTML script. The elements in the document are building blocks that play a particular role.

Opening and closing tag

The syntax for opening and closing a tag is as follows:

Opening Tag: < element>

Closing Tag: </element>

Coding my way...

My First HTML page

When I started out with coding, my first HTML page rendition on my browser felt like Magic!!!!

If you are new to this, its might feel the same way too to you. But the magic you feel the first time should be a driving force for you to want to do more and go further. I'm with you on this.

Structure of HTML

The above shows the structure of a basic HTML page with the basic tags opening and closing

Writing your HTML codes

On a previous post, I talked about Web browsers and text editors. You can click on this link to go to that page.

If you have successfully downloaded the installation files and installed them, the next step you should take now is to open the text editor and create a new file. You can name it "first"or anyhow you like..

If you have done that , the the next thing to do is to start coding. Yeah!!!!!

Go ahead and type in the code you see below into the text editor.

After you are done typing, you should save the file.  The file extension of the file should be ".html" like you have ".jpg" for pictures.
For a beginner, I will advise you to save your HTML file on your Desktop folder so it can easily be accessed.

Web browsers automatically recognize HTML file. So, you should just double click on the file and it will be opened up by your default browser.

The result will look like the above on your browser. You did the Magic. If it does not look like that on your browser, then check your code for errors. You do not need internet connection to load your page.
Look forward to my next post to learn more on the topic.

Getting started with coding

My assumption is that you are reading this post now and you are ready to go into learning how to code. The first criteria which I think you should have met is having a personal computer of your own. You can use someone's computer, but I strongly recommend that you use yours. 

What do I need in my computer to code?

To start coding with your computer, there are a couple of programs you will first need to install on your computer.

First of all, you must have a Web browser installed on your system. It could be Opera Mini, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. This is to be able to be able to test the codes you write.

Secondly, you will need to download an advanced text editor or notepad.. you can either download Sublime Text Editor

or Notepad++

You could just use your normal Notepad in your computer if you cannot download the text editors above.

After you get this done, then you are ready to move on to the next stage

Web Design

What is Web Design?

Web design is all about the planning and creation of websites. A good designer knows HTML and CSS as well as the fundamental principles of web design. A great designer knows that planning a website is as critical as putting the pieces together.When you're setting out to learn web design the first thing you will need to learn is HTML.

What is HTML?

HTML is an abbreviation that stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is the language of web pages—the markup language that browsers read to render web pages. HTML has several versions as well as browser support.

HTML Versions

There are a number of versions of HTML that have been supported by web browsers:

• HTML 2.0
  This was published as an IETF RFC in 1995. It was supported by some browsers like Mosaic.
• HTML 3.2
  This version was the first W3C recommendation. It had wider browser support (partially because there were a lot more browsers). It became a recommendation in January 1997.
• HTML 4.0 and HTML 4.01
  In December 1997, the W3C released this upgrade to HTML 3.2 as a recommendation. It added more features and tags and provided three versions: transitional, strict, and frameset. This was updated to 4.01 in December 1999 with a few changes to the specification.                        
• XHTML 1.0
  XHTML 1.0 is a reformulation of HTML 4.01 under XML rules, and it was published as a recommendation by the W3C in January 2000. It has much stricter syntax and requires that any XHTML be valid and well-formed in order to display correctly. Most web browsers render XHTML 1.0 documents the same as they render HTML 4.01 documents.
• HTML5
  HTML5 began being developed in 2004, when the W3C HTML working group decided to merge the HTML and XHTML tree to make HTML a purely XML-based language. This left designers and browser manufacturers who wanted a more flexible solution with the choice to give up or create their own new specification. They created a new group called the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group or WHATWG. HTML5 became a W3C working draft in 2008.