Build Your Own Web Site
When you are ready to get yourself a web site online you have several options:You can:
- Buy a web site.
- Hire someone to build a web site for you to your requirements.
- Create a web site using an online site builder.
- Start a blog.
- Build your own web site using visual HTML editing software.
- Build Your Own Web site by writing the code yourself.
As this site develops I shall be providing you with free code for web site building with the emphasis on keeping it simple, at least at first. My aim is to provide you with enough free information and tools for you to begin to design free sites for the web all by yourself.
But I hear you say "I can get the same advantages by using a visual HTML editor, why do I need to write the code myself?" Well you are right, you will get most of the same benefits that I've cited above as long as your visual HTML tools support everything that you want it to do. The main problem with this approach is that a visual editor is unlikely to be able to cope with everything that you might want to do with it.
Sooner or later you will feel the need to edit the code directly because the visual editor won't do what you want it to or you can't find out how to make it do it. This is when you find out how bad your visual editor can be at writing code. It depends on the editor of course but some of them can make a real mess of the code, to the point where it's almost impossible to work out what's going on.
So you finally work out what the code does and you make some minor modifications to it then load it back into the visual editor. Most editors at this point will re-format the code that you have just written just for the fun of it and if you are unlucky the editor won't be able to display your modifications correctly.
By the time you've sorted out the mess you will have learned a little HTML and you will probably be thinking that you should have started off with the code right from the beginning and I would agree with you.
Now don't get me wrong, some people make very effective use of visual HTML editors so they do have their place. Personally I like the power and flexibility that the underlying code affords me and I've never really bothered to learn how to use a visual editor fully. I do use one to write code with but I rarely use the visual aspects of it.
When choosing an HTML editor you should look for one that understands HTML tags, provides syntax highlighting and helps with choosing the correct tasks. There are many good HTML editors with syntax highlighting that provide comprehensive help for HTML, CSS and Javascript that you will find suitable for you to Build Your Own Web site.
When you've decided how you are going to build your web site and I hope that you are going to build your own, you will need to find affordable web site hosting for your web site to live on. Of course the affordable part is optional and the actual price will depend on your requirements and the size of your pockets.