HTML and CSS : Journalists' Toolkit
A training site for multimedia and online journalists
Learning HTML and CSS
HTML Dog is a great
site for finding answers to your questions about HTML and CSS.
It provides
tutorials for every level, from beginner to advanced.
If you patiently work through the HTML tutorials in order, you will learn the
proper way to code Web pages.
W3schools has a very nice CSS
2.0 reference.
Web Page Editing Programs
The nicest professional editor, in my opinion, is Dreamweaver. I have been
using it for many years.
Alternatively, there are a number of free and open-source Web editing programs
today:
- Nvu (pronounced N
view): Windows, Mac or Linux
- Amaya: Windows,
Mac or Unix
If you do not know how to upload files to a Web server, see this
FTP tutorial.
Firefox and Add-Ons
Among the many things that make Firefox far superior to Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the ability to enhance it with free add-ons. These little programs download and install painlessly from the Firefox site itself.
These are my favorite Firefox add-ons for Web work:
- Web Developer toolbar: Adds almost everything a Web designer or programmer needs to inspect pages: See the CSS, the HTML, the Javascript; turn images on and off; outline CSS elements to figure out how pages were built; validate in two clicks.
- Firebug: The few tasks that the Web Developer toolbar can't do are handled admirably by Firebug, which allows you not only to view code but also to edit it.
- FireFTP: The easiest way to upload and download files between your computer and your host Web server.
- Pearl Crescent Page Saver Basic: An easy way to get a screenshot of a Web page; you can choose to grab the entire page, including what is not visible outside the viewport.
- MeasureIt: A quick way to determine the width, in pixels, of anything on a Web page in the browser. Great for design troubleshooting.
- ColorZilla: Use an eyedropper tool to instantly get the hexadecimal code for any color on a Web page.
Intermediate/Advanced
Ajax:
A New Approach to Web Applications, by Jesse James Garrett (Feb 18,
2005)
Big List of Helpful Sites
Tutorials
Round-Up: Ajax, CSS, PHP and More, from Smashing Magazine (Jan. 26, 2007)
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