Overview

This two day course is designed for those with no previous coding or programming experience but who need a comprehensive grasp of web page coding and structure using HTML and XHTML - the language of the web.

By the end of this course you will have the necessary knowledge to author web pages using XHTML, be able to edit existing HTML and to maintain and update existing web content.

The course explores planning a website, browser issues, structural mark up, creating on-line forms and tables and working with graphics.

Whether you are an individual user, a small business or part of a large organisation, this course will give you the skills and confidence to author and publish robust XHTML and HTML websites. Feel free to adapt the following outline to your own specific requirements if you wish.

Course Content

DAY 1

BACKGROUND
Introduction to HTML
Introduction to XHTML
Introduction to XML

STRUCTURING A WEBSITE
The client/server relationship
Understanding directories and how a site is organised
Installing and running a simple Server
Cross platform file names
Cross platform directory names

THE MINIMAL HTML DOCUMENT
XHTML and HTML syntax
Creating body text
Creating titles
Creating headings

ADDING META DATA
Creating content tags
Creating keyword tags

ADDING STRUCTURE TO THE CONTENT
Creating headings and sub headings
Creating paragraphs
Working with special characters
Creating line breaks
Creating horizontal rules

WORKING WITH IMAGES
Adding image links
The GIF, JPEG and PNG file formats
Compression issues

CREATING AND WORKING WITH LISTS
Numbered (ordered) lists
Unnumbered (unordered) lists
Definition lists

LINKING TO OTHER DOCUMENTS
Relative links vs. Absolute links
Working with URLs
Anchors within documents

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

DAY 2

INTRODUCTION TABLES IN X/HTML
Creating a table
Creating rows
Creating columns
Creating table headings
Adding a table caption and summary
Merging cells
Nesting tables

FORMS IN X/HTML
Creating a basic input form
Adding form fields, radio buttons and check boxes
Using the legend, label and fieldset tags
Adding submit and reset buttons
Using form methods
Combining forms and actions

WORKING WITH COLOURS
About hexadecimal and RGB colour
Web safe colours

INTRODUCTION TO CSS
Separating content from presentation
The difference between CSS and mark up
CSS structure (syntax)
Inserting styles - inline embedded or external
The cascade order

STYLING TEXT
Deciding which elements to style
Styling basic text elements
Specifying font size and colour
Specifying font alignment

STYLING A TABLE
Styling row and column settings
Creating borders
Adding colours

STYLING LINKS
Creating hover effects
Keeping track of links

PUBLISHING ISSUES
Uploading your site
Proofing and testing your site
Troubleshooting
Web authoring tools

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS