Best HTML Course for beginners?

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Best HTML Course for beginners?

Christima858

8:39 am on Oct 23, 2012 (gmt 0)

Hi, I am a marketer and not a webmaster (aspiring to learn more web) - I create basic php landing pages in Dreamweaver using a template built by someone else but don't know exactly what I am doing. I really want to learn html and there are so many courses out there. Does anyone have a suggestion about what type or which one (free or paid) is best for a novice? Thank you.

[edited by: tedster at 1:59 pm (utc) on Oct 23, 2012]
[edit reason] no personal domains, please [/edit]

rainborick

4:11 pm on Oct 23, 2012 (gmt 0)

I see questions like yours quite often in forums, and my reaction is always the same: It doesn't really matter. The key is to simply get started with whatever you find convenient. Most people will recommend the book they used to learn about the subject because its rarely necessary to try a second beginner's book on HTML. Like so many computer skills, learning HTML is an evolutionary process. Once you have a grasp of the basic foundation, the rest is just adding layers of knowledge for specific tasks or functions.

You can find basic HTML tutorials online, of course. If you can deal with switching back and forth between windows, an online tutorial is fine. I go back to the days of punch cards and paper tape, so my preference is always for a real book. Local libraries always have a few choices, and it isn't terribly important how long ago the book was written. You can pick up the changes that have occurred easily enough. If its less than four or five years old, you'll be pretty much up to date. So have at it. Good luck!

jimbeetle

4:12 pm on Oct 23, 2012 (gmt 0)

Hey Christima858, welcome to WebmasterWorld.

I usually recommend that people start off with the W3 Schools HTML Tutorial [w3schools.com]. It's a solid, no frills introduction and a good jumping off point for more advanced work.

andrewneil

9:37 am on Oct 25, 2012 (gmt 0)

If you are beginner then you can learn from [w3schools.com...]

phranque

11:05 am on Oct 25, 2012 (gmt 0)

HTML/Training - Web Education Community Group:
http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/HTML/Training [w3.org]

Dave Raggett's Introduction to HTML:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ [w3.org]
Dave Raggett's Introduction to HTML:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Advanced.html [w3.org]

W3Fools � A W3Schools Intervention:
http://w3fools.com/ [w3fools.com]

g1smd

11:13 am on Oct 25, 2012 (gmt 0)

Basic HTML is pretty simple: headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, forms, images, links, etc as well as what goes in the <head> section of the page.

It's CSS that styles the page and is the part that requires quite a bit more effort to learn.

Learning simple bits of PHP such as "include", "header" and so on, allows a lot of powerful functionality in a few lines of code.

mh_and

10:57 am on Oct 31, 2012 (gmt 0)

Referencing w3schools for a complete newbie is pretty much wrong.. There are lots of tutorials, video guides, ebooks for starting, that take you from the start and through little to bigger projects and makes things visually easy to understand.

I'm with @rainborick as long as you start rest is just matter of perfection as a part of evolutionary process.

g1smd

11:15 am on Oct 31, 2012 (gmt 0)

This was mentioned in another recent thread: [w3fools.com...]

brotherhood of LAN

11:48 am on Oct 31, 2012 (gmt 0)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head></head>
<body></body>
</html>

Learn what goes inside <head> and <body> and you're pretty much set IMO. I would recommend understanding the DOM to someone starting out as it gives good context to the wider scope of a webpage.

piatkow

12:27 pm on Oct 31, 2012 (gmt 0)

There are lots of tutorials, video guides, ebooks for starting,

Including a lot of out of date stuff recommending things like the use of frames or using tables for page layout.

Having said that I agree that w3schools is a bit heavy for the total beginner.

Emmadoll

6:25 am on Nov 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

You can use templates made by others for improving your skills and knowledge. Check the code in those templates, edit them by yourself. And for getting basic knowledge you must follow [w3schools.com,...] its content is really good for learning purpose.

g1smd

9:49 am on Nov 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

... but also see [w3fools.com...]

drhowarddrfine

5:04 pm on Nov 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

To say, "...you must follow W3Schools" makes me wonder if that person thinks W3Schools is affiliated with the W3C. To be clear, there is no association of any kind between the two.

swa66

6:17 pm on Nov 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

To say, "...you must follow W3Schools" makes me wonder if that person thinks W3Schools is affiliated with the W3C. To be clear, there is no association of any kind between the two.

Let's not forget some of us are not native English speakers, don't jump to conclusions please.

Personally: I find the w3c standards quite easy to read, and the main advantage is that you do not suffer from interpretations, omissions etc. Now I understand that's not the easy start. But the real question is should the start be easy ?
My position is that it should not be easy, as the easier it is made, the less people care to do it right, to adhere to standards etc. and the more crap is put out there.

If you want it easy: use a tool and hope it's a good one that adheres to the standards.
If you care about quality: use the standards properly and dump the tools, learn the details and put some effort in it learning how it really works.

StoutFiles

7:28 pm on Nov 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

Never been a fan of w3schools. It's nice for a refresher on something, but not to actually learn. You need a site or book that forces you to use an editor and make the page yourself on your own computer instead of their Try-it-Yourself editor, as well as combine the lessons with CSS so you don't waste time learning heavily outdated tags on your first go around.

lucy24

7:34 am on Nov 10, 2012 (gmt 0)

... but also see [w3fools.com...]
Heh.

Actually w3schools is fine ... until the day you discover that something they dismissed in half a sentence back in Lesson Three ("don't bother about this format, this other format is easier") is the only way to achieve what you want.

I still miss the old UIUC tutorial. It got harder and harder to find, and finally shut down for real.