How to Make a Web Page
Here’s both an offer and a request for those of you who want to learn how to code web pages. I teach an introductory computer class, and part of it is to learn how to code HTML. The basics, of course, not advanced stuff.
I like to create my own materials (finding books to teach it in just the way you want is usually more trouble than just doing it yourself!), and I just finished a huge chunk of it. My students will be using it soon, but I wanted to put a copy of it up here to see if anyone here could find a use for it, and if you do, then let me know what you think of it, and how it rates as a primer for beginners.
If you already know basic HTML coding, then this will likely be boring for you. But if you know nothing at all about how to write a web page using HTML, this guide should (knock on wood) teach you how.
I’d appreciate any and all comments, kibitzing, critiques and corrections to make this better for my students. Keep in mind that the formatting is simple (white backgrounds, not much garnishing) because this is a first draft; future drafts may include more formatting so it is easier to read. Although it is intended to accompany several regular classes in which I’ll be walking them through all of this, it’d be nice if it could be self-contained as well. And yes, I know the last two chapters and the project outline are missing–those have yet to be written.
Also note that this is aimed at Windows users. If you use a Mac, the pages will still work, except you should use a simple text editor like iText to write the pages, instead of Windows’ Notepad. I avoid TextEdit because after saving and re-opening web pages, it tries to display them like web pages instead of showing the code, and I don’t like trying to reset it to do what I want. I hate simple programs that try to “help” you too much!
Here’s the link to the HTML Primer.
Thanks in advance!
Very Nice !!!
Not really related but a question I hope you can answer.
I just got a used imac–the old front tray loading blueberry one. It runs at 333 and has 96megs of memory. and 6gig hard disk.
But no os installed. I dont think I can just buy osX and start it up. So where can I get the old os 8 or 9 to start up this computer.
Thanks
mashu
Very nice tutorial. Although I think we should be teaching people to use css instead of font tags 😉
I would have thought that most young people these days would already know this stuff.
Roy:
CSS is a bit more involved, too much so to add as a component of the course I teach. I make them aware of it, but I do not teach it to them. If there were a second computer course after this, I would probably do that. But HTML is more basic and can be taught independently, with relative ease.
Mashu:
Apple sells OS 9 at the Apple Store for about the same price as OS X, but they suggested that if you call the customer support line and tell them that you have an old iBook and are missing the install disks, they might send you a new set. I tried calling the support line, but was not able to get through right now. That was the Apple Japan people, and I’m not sure if you’re in Japan or not, but the policy should be the same worldwide, if that is indeed the policy.
Let me know how it goes.
Luis, I realize that, it was supposed to be a joke but came out all wrong..sigh
Roy:
Whoops! Missed the wink emoticon, sorry. I just figured you were so hip you didn’t see the non-hip!
By the way, your posts about getting the Powerbook pushed me over the edge and on Saturday I went out and got one too. 15″ 1.67GHZ SuperDrive 1.5GB RAM (Japanese Keyboard)
My IBM laptop’s hard disk crashed and as it is being fixed I started to think about whether I wanted to upgrade my main machine. I’ve wanted a Powerbook for so long and with the Mactel announcement and all I started to think seriously about it. Along with what you said in your posts, a couple friends had similar arguments and it just helped me make the decision. The fact that I just got my bonus also contributed a bit.
Anyway, it is a fine machine and you will definitely love it. I used to think people who carried around their Powerbooks out in the city were total geeks but now I know how they feel. The PB is just about the most beautiful computer there is. Of course, I’ve seen it millions of time but now that I got one I just want to take it with me everywhere and show it off! The backlit keyboard and two finger trackpad are great features.
However, the biggest flaw that I realized right away but had never noticed before is the keyboard and trackpad layout. If you place your fingers on the keys in typing position, index fingers on F and J, your right hand covers half of the trackpad. Although the track pad is in the center of the machine the keyboard seems a bit too far left. I noticed this when the mouse started to move around when I began typing. I compared pictures on the web and it seems like the English KB is slightly more centered. I guess I could get used to this but hope I don’t get carpal tunnelling. If you use a mouse and turn off the track pad it won’t be annoying. I’m curious to know what you think about this.
The second flaw, related to my machine, is that the superdrive makes a bit of a scraping noise when I play a DVD. Intermittently every 10-20 seconds like the disc is rubbing against something. It’s not very loud but just enough to bother me. I’ll key an ear on that and hope it disappears.
Besides that it is a wonderful piece of craftsmanship. No regrets here.
Roy:
Good on ya mate! As for the trackpad, that won’t bother me much–I always use a mouse, and now that MacAlly has a good Bluetooth mouse coming out soon ( see http://www.macally.com/spec/bluetooth/btmouse.html), I’m getting it as soon as it hits stores.
As for the DVD drive, in my experience, that’s a hit-or-miss chance–some drives have the scraping noise, some don’t. I hate it when they do that. It happened in an old iBook of mine, the 333MHz tangerine. You might want to take it to an Apple store and have them see if it can’t be fixed or swapped out.
Hi Luis,
No time to read much of your manual or all of the comments at the moment, but the font tag is deprecated in recent versions of html and xhtml and in xhtml tags should all be lowercase. These standards exist for good reason, and you will not be doing your students any favors by teaching them to do things the wrong way, besides which they then miss out on great tools such as the w3c validator for figuring out what is wrong with their code.
UB