Basics of Web Design

Back in July I talked about Why a writer should have a website. To reread that post you can click here.

I thought, hey why not help those who want to make their own website by giving them the basics aka HTML.

A site can be made simply in a program you already have on your computer: Notepad.

In this program you can make a basic page using HTML (HyperText Markup Language).

HTML uses tags (ie. such as

) which are simple instructions of where everything is placed and/or what that item should look like.

Now if I were to write a very, very basic page in HTML it would look like this:

PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SPACES BETWEEN BRACKETS AND TAGS! (ie. html> not html >)

<>
<>

<> This is Your Heading < /h1 >

<> This will be your paragraph of information < /p >

< /body >
< /html >

Let me describe to you what each tag does for that particular page.

<> starts your page, letting the program know you are going to use html to build a web site
<> is the beginning of your page and where your HTML will go
<> Heading 1, headings range from 1-6 (ie. <>, <>, <> etc.)
< /h1 > closes the heading tag
<> This is the paragraph tag and the < /p > closes the paragraph... information is typed in between these tags
< /body > closes the page of html codes
< /html > lets everyone and every browser know that html codes are done at this point

Now go try this. Open up Notepad and type in the above code. Save it as a html file (ie. doc.html) and then open it in your internet browser (usually by opening your browser, click on file, open and then find your doc OR press ctrl + o).

Knowing the very basics, you could now incorporate more tags onto the page to elaborate what it looks like.

You could make font bold by using the <> < /b > tags or you could make it italic by using the <> < /i > tags. How about making a list?

For an unordered list ( <>, < /ul >) the code could look like this:

<>

<> Item to be listed < /li >
<> Other item listed < /li >

< /ul >

OR and ordered list:

<>

<> Item #1 < /li >
<> Item #2 < /li >

< /ol >

There are so many tags out there that help form your page. You can make forms, you could have scrolling text, you could change the colour of your text, you could add images, videos, audio... the opportunities are endless!

If you would like to learn more about HTML w3schools is a great website to check out. Now go ahead and try the code up above. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them here and I will be more than happy to answer them!

Until next time, Happy Web Designing!

Screwing Up Your Writing by Christina E. Rundle

I must share with you all an incredibly informative blog post I have just read.

It is called Screwing Up Your Writing Career over on Christina E. Rundle's blog for which I follow.

She gives a nice detailed list of tips for any writer who does not want to screw up his/her writing career. The tips are endless yet the first thing I done once I finished reading them all was print it out.

Thanks Christina for all the wonderful info!

Three Ways to Promote Yourself and Your Writing

I recently wrote an article for Crafting Fiction that I would love for you all to check out and comment if you have time.

The link here will direct you to The Crafting Fiction website.

With that said, I love sharing and learning information with others. It always makes me feel excited when someone says "hey that's a very useful link you gave. Thanks" or "I was able to fix a problem thanks to that article you shared". Being able to share everything with the incredibly huge writer family out there makes me feel like I'm apart of something amazing. So I really have to say thank you for following and making writing even more enjoyable to share.

Banned Books

Can you believe that September is here? I swear the year is going by way too fast for me.

I was reading a blog post over on the Indie Debut 2010 blog (found here) about the challenge to read Banned Books during the month of September.

I wanted to let everyone know about this bit of a challenge, I suppose you can call it, as I know I am going to sign up for it for sure.

I found out after a bit of research, that books have been banned by various people/organizations because the books are controversial or have material in them that offend these people and organizations.

I don't know about you, but I am becoming quite sick of this political correctness in our world with always having to cover the things that offend people. All I will say is that if it offends you, instead of trying to ban books that other people will want to read, don't read it. Don't talk about it. Don't give that book that offended you so much the satisfaction of your anger or any sort of attention. I personally shouldn't have to be told I can't read something because you were offended by the content.

Anyways, near the end of September there is a Banned Book Week, which I will try to write a post about what's happening during that week, closer to that time.

Until then, After hearing a bit of my own opinion on the matter, I would like to hear what you have to say about Banned Books. Good thing or bad?

Until next time, have a good week everyone.