Building Tips

Building your web site can be a long and sometimes very tedious process. Hopefully some of the following advice might make it a little bit easier.

Firstly, don't forget your original content plan. As you create each section, make sure you know what pages will contain what information. Keep things logical - if you're confused, how do you think your visitors will feel?

Begin by taking your prototype file and working out what needs to be changed in individual pages. For a simple site, you may just need to change the title and body text. You may want to highlight these using HTML comment tags.

Use that template as the basis for all your files, copying and pasting it as many times as required. If you are using a WYSYWIG editor use that to create your template.

Remember that if you create a directory you'll have to update your template so that relative paths still point to the correct files. It may be worth creating several templates for each directory level, rather than having to rewrite the paths each time you use a new directory. Again WYSIWYG editors will normally do this for you.

HTML Editors

When it comes to larger projects a specialised HMTL editor can have many advantages. While still having complete control over the HTML (unlike with WYSIWYG editors), they have some very useful additional features:

Obviously each program has its own specialised features but you're sure to find one that suits you. For links to some of the most popular editors (many of which are free), see the resources section.

To see a screen shot of a typical editor, click here. We used Macromedia Dreamweaver MX for Macintosh OS X 10.2 to create code-warrior.

Keeping Track

Don't forget that some things have to be done. It's easy to overlook some things when you are working on a large site. Some editors allow you to make site notes. Sometimes though there is simply no substitute for a paper and pen.

Keep it Fun!

Remember why you wanted to learn HTML in the first place. Making your new site shouldn't be a chore.