BellaOnline Forums Computers HTML What's your HTML comfort level?

Yep, Word formatting will make a mess in HTML code. The only thing that's worse is trying to copy and paste from an Outlook email message... it makes one *huge* disaster of random weird tags mixed in with your HTML!

Yes, I'll have to dust off my html instruction book and try coding from scratch. Do you use editpad lite or notetab instead of notepad?

Also, what do you know about cascading style sheets? I've signed up for an online class.

I'm definitely a beginner. All I know so far is <i></i> and <b></b>. After that I'm lost. But alas, I keep hearing that journalists need to learn html, so I have a goal to improve in this area.

Style sheets are pretty easy to learn. I have a couple of articles posted in the CSS section that will get you started.

The hardest part is memorizing which properties do what and which attributes go with them. I use this site as a memory tickler:

http://www.eskimo.com/~bloo/indexdot/css/propindex/all.htm

Also, I don't know what class you are taking but the (free!) courses on this site are pretty good:

http://www.w3schools.com/

Actually I use HTML-Kit, which is available from download.com for free (you may have noticed I have a real affinity for free stuff!). It's awesomely customizable, you can basically create whatever windows and toolbars you want. Also, while your work is all done code-only it has a nice Preview display that lets you see what your page will look like BEFORE you post it live.

If you want to try it I recommend you also use this guide to help you customize it to your own preferences:

http://www.ironspider.ca/hktutorials/index.htm

I will check them all out. Thanks. I have taken many classes at Virtual University (they have been around for a long time). There is an instructor, homework, mentors, message board for the class. It is very inexpensive for five weeks.

I just read two of the basic html articles. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'm finally on my way.

Glad it helped! Let me know if you have any questions.

Knowing some HTML really helps even when you use an editing program like Front Page. When something goes wrong, you can recognize what the problem is. It relieves some of the frustration.