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> new to HTML world !
splash104
post Jan 7 2012, 11:37 PM
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Hello there!

I want to start from scratch on HTML, XHTML, CSS and further. For that I need some guidance as to where to look for learning these languages from BASIC to MASTERY.

I learned a bit from w3schools.com but it seems there it's less descriptive and explanatory and more on the practical side.

After studying and completing the languages, I want to take an exam and get certifications for that all ONLINE!

Thanx!
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pandy
post Jan 8 2012, 12:07 AM
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Well, we have a list of tutorials here.
http://htmlhelp.com/faq/html/docs.html#technology

The HTML ones are all old, but that doesn't mean they are bad. Personally I think Korpela's is till a good place to start. The problem with it is that when it was written HTML 3.2 was the latest and greatest. That's not what you'd want to use. I think HTML 4.01 is where you should start, but opinions may vary about that. Anyway, you could skim the preliminary chapters and try a few things out. You will get the basics right, something that can't be said about all tutorials.

Once you understand the principles, basically all you need can be got with the lists of elements and attributes in the spec as a starting point and trial and error.
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/elements.html
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/attributes.html

My one advice to you is to stick to just HTML for a week or two. Don't use deprecated stuff (they are marked in the list above and also in the HTML refernce at this site). That's basically everything that makes the page look pretty - but you'll use CSS for that later. If you can stand building ugly pages with paragraphs, list and too large looking headings for a little while you'll have the foundation down pat and can move on to the glittery world of CSS with greater confidence.

Also make frequent use of a validator. They tell you stuff, even if you may think they do so in a cryptic way at first. You can learn at lot from them if you just keep using them.
http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/
http://validator.w3.org/


Good luck and sorry I don't know any modern tutorials to send you to. I'm no fan of w3schools either. wink.gif
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splash104
post Jan 8 2012, 01:02 PM
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Thanks for your help mate smile.gif!

I have been looking around for some days now on HTML and happy to understand the basic principles of it. I will certainly look into these link you have sent.

Just for clarification, I am unable to completely understand how I can write the DOCTYPE declaration for my document at the top?
Say for example, www.splash104.com is my website, so what will be the proper way to write the DOCTYPE of it?

Also, what EXACTLY is the difference in CSS and designing through HTML itself? because I am able to change layout features (background colors, font sizes, etc) in HTML even. So is it really important to use CSS instead?
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Christian J
post Jan 8 2012, 06:08 PM
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QUOTE(splash104 @ Jan 8 2012, 07:02 PM) *

Say for example, www.splash104.com is my website, so what will be the proper way to write the DOCTYPE of it?

I got a server error from that URL. Regarding Doctypes, see http://htmlhelp.com/faq/html/basics.html#doctype

BTW the HTML5 Doctype is the simplest one to remember:

CODE
<!DOCTYPE html>

and can be used even if you stick with HTML4 elements. Unfortunately http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/ doesn't support this Doctype yet, but you can use it on http://validator.w3.org/

QUOTE
Also, what EXACTLY is the difference in CSS and designing through HTML itself? because I am able to change layout features (background colors, font sizes, etc) in HTML even. So is it really important to use CSS instead?

Such presentational HTML elements (and attributes) are deprecated because they offer much less flexibility than CSS. With CSS you can change a whole web site from a single CSS file, and also specify different styles for say screen and print. See also http://htmlhelp.com/reference/css/stylesheets-now.html
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pandy
post Jan 8 2012, 09:59 PM
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You don't need to memorize doctypes. You copy-paste them.
http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html

You just put the doctype as the first line of the document, before <HTML>. There's an example here: http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/structure.html#doc .

I get the feeling you use some kind of editor where you don't have to look at the actual source code. If that's so, stop using it and get yourself a text editor (some come with HTML oriented features, but that isn't necessary). You won't learn from a so called WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get) and they usually generate crappy HTML.

As Christian says, using CSS is more flexible and it's a whole lot less time consuming. For example, instead of writing FONT tags for each paragraph in every HTML document on your site, you write a few lines in a single CSS document that serves your whole site, or even several sites if you wish. Imagine what is easiest the day you want to change the font, text color or text size.

But there's more to it than ease of use. HTML wasn't constructed for presentational stuff even if market demands forced the addition of such elements, that's why it's clumsy and cumbersome to use for that. It's supposed to be used for structure. Simply put, what you write in HTML is supposed ed to tell something about the content the tags mark up. Without CSS a browser can then style that how it pleases (some purposes may differ from how you use an everyday browser) and other devices such as search engines can use the markup to get information about the document. Same with scripting languages you may use later.

These two examples will look the same.

CODE
Blah blah blah blah. Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.
<br><br>
Blah blah blah blah. Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.

CODE
<p>
Blah blah blah blah. Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.</p>
<p>
Blah blah blah blah. Yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.</p>


The first tells you nothing about the text. The second tells you (and any device that access it) that here we have two paragraphs. The paragraphs can be used as hooks for CSS and scripting languages. In the first example you can't get to the text in that way. It isn't contained in an HTML element so there is no way to style it or to get to the individual paragraphs with JavaScript.
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Christian J
post Jan 9 2012, 07:40 AM
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QUOTE(pandy @ Jan 9 2012, 03:59 AM) *

You don't need to memorize doctypes. You copy-paste them.

True, but (unlike the old ones) the new one can be memorized. This has saved me unnecessary googling a couple of times when I've been away from my own computer. wub.gif
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pandy
post Jan 9 2012, 08:34 AM
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That's because it's a fake doctype. tongue.gif
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