questions on creating a webpage

[Sidney Wood]

Robert;

The internet technolgy is in a constant state of evolution and most of the older software to create web pages tend to become obsolete in that they produce a lot of unnecessary code and large files. Of course I haven't tried the all and there may be exceptions. All you need for basic display of content is HTML for the content and CSS to make it look the way you want it. As both can be done with a simple text editor, I found it easier to do with the tools I already had than having to learn new software. The only software I have kept for my work on my site is a free text editor called "The Crimson Editor" that highlights the html elements.

A trip through the W3C tutorials will give you an idea of how simple the basic process is. Broken down into simple steps the whole thing is not so overwhelming. Something you need to stay away from is the old method of using html tables for page layout and use CSS instead.

The things that drive this approach for me are an insatiable curiosity (and the time to satisfy it) and wanting to do things the way I want instead of the way dedicated programs will let me.

An interesting thing is to use view in the browser and look at the page source for the site you are at. You will find some that go on forever to produce a page that that could have been done with half a page of code.

By the way, I worked closely with the telephone people in Brownwood for several years in the 80's when I maintained the old microwave path that fed their toll circuits out of Abilene. I particularly remember Bob Stewart, Charlie Gamblin and Ken Ellis.

Good luck with a web site and if I can help dont hesitate to ask.

Sidney Wood

stwood@taylortel.net

If you want to look at my site about braided knots it is http://taylortel.net/~stwood

[daviD A Morris]

OK.... I'm goin to ask a dum question here. but if i don't ask I'll never know.

What is CSS ???

I did manage to build my own website with netscape compose, but that was over 10 years ago and its past time to upgrade it.

Thanks for help

dam

[Sidney Wood]

OK.... I'm goin to ask a dum question here. but if i don't ask I'll never know.

What is CSS ???

I did manage to build my own website with netscape compose, but that was over 10 years ago and its past time to upgrade it.

Thanks for help

dam

CSS is Cascading Style Sheets. It is one of the "dialects" that the browsers "speak" . It allows you to style the presentation of the HTML or XHTML content of a page or pages with style statements inline- in the head of a page, or a separate css file. By having the style (colors, fonts, positioning, borders, etc. in a style sheet file you can add pages with HTML that will be like all the rest without going through all the style stuff again. You con also change the appearance of a whole site with one style sheet. This approach also results in much smaller HTML files.

Sidney Wood

[daviD A Morris]

Thanks Sidney,

So if i understand correctly it makes it improves the efficiency of very fancy and otherwise complicated layouts. And I can change the styles of a whole bunch of pages by just making changes in one file, the style sheet.

Do modern webpage building programs come with CSS or do i need some specific CSS program?

Once again thankyou

dam

[Sidney Wood]

Thanks Sidney,

So if i understand correctly it makes it improves the efficiency of very fancy and otherwise complicated layouts. And I can change the styles of a whole bunch of pages by just making changes in one file, the style sheet.

Do modern webpage building programs come with CSS or do i need some specific CSS program?

Once again thankyou

dam

The style statements them selves were added to HTLM 4.0 and the cascading sheets are just a method of implementing them. I don't know for sure about the wep page building programs as I write my own HTMl with a text editor. You could look at the page source from o source that used one of them (probably be listed under "generator in the head" , for a style sheet reference or style tags in the head or body of the page.

If this interests you the best thing is to go to WWW Consortium page ae http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp and look at the tutorials. The cover HTML, CSS Java Script and a lot more, with references for everything.

Sidney Wood

[daviD A Morris]

Sidney,

Thankyou verymuch for that link to the w3schools, I've started studying it.

dam

[TracyMoss]

The Coffe cup deal is just a trial and has a yellow bar at the top that tells me to order the full version.