How to Really Build a Web Page
I recently read an article on "How to REALLY Build a Web Page", and I was sorely disappointed. Although I tend to know the majority of what is covered in your average "beginner" article, I enjoy reading them to see others’ takes on the basic premises of web design and coding.
Unfortunately, that particular article left something to be desired. Therefore I wanted to write my own take on building a basic web page. This post will focus on the initial steps to build the HTML (and the steps you should take before writing your first line of code).
Introduction
There are a few million (33.9 million, as of this post) different tutorials out there for building a web page. So what makes this one any different? The short answer is: probably very little. However, I hope to present the process in a way that is both comprehensive and easy to understand for any person who is new to the arena of basic web design. I will also present a few coding best practices that I believe are simpler than people usually make them out to be.
Here is what I plan to cover in this post:
November 6th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Good Job!
I’m going to go ahead and mention HTML5 here, also found via the w3c site, as the standard a new designer should be starting with. The switchover is coming and most of the big-boy browsers already have support. Also, the faster we can kill Flash, the happier I’ll be.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Thanks! I appreciate the feedback.
I agree with you that HTML5 is on its way, and I plan to update this tutorial to use HTML5 instead of XHTML 1.0. However, since the spec is still in draft form and support is still (relatively) spotty, my preference is to stick with XHTML.
That being said, I don’t plan to wait forever for HTML5 support and the draft. If everyone does that, nobody will ever implement it. Once the spec gets to a fairly stable state and is a bit better supported, I’ll make the switch and start recommending it myself.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
What’s your reason for suggesting that images be inside paragraph tags? To me it seems like that’s a presentational choice (block level, top and bottom margin, etc…) rather than structural.
Good article though. 8^)
November 9th, 2009 at 7:50 am
The main reason I am advocating that they be inside paragraph tags is that in this article I don’t get into discussing the <div> tag. Since every element must be within a block-level container, it made the most sense to recommend putting them in paragraph tags.
The next article (covering CSS, mostly) will cover more HTML, including divs.
February 24th, 2010 at 5:31 am
I don’t think many people realize the number of disadvantages that go along with creating free websites. Hopefully this article will shed some light on the subject.
Don’t make the same mistake I did. After this nightmare, I vowed to never go the “free route” again. Creating your site from scratch with its own dot com name is affordable and definitely worth the small investment.
Parking your site at a free host is often like building a house on sand. It may be quick and and it may seem easy at first, but I can almost guarantee you it won’t last long.