The HTML Tutorials

Just the other day, I was discussing with a friend via e-mail regarding the purpose of this site. All went well; he was very supportive. However, when the subject of HTML came up, he was taken aback. "You are going to teach both HTML and Dreamweaver?" His reasoning: if Dreamweaver does all of the HTML work for you, why would one even need to know HTML to begin with?

To his credit, he has a point. The purpose of a good web page editor is to give you all the tools you need to build a great web site without having all of that pesky knowledge to back it up if anything goes wrong. So, like tourists in France with our French-English dictionaries in hand, we step out into the Internet with something to say, but little idea of how we are going to say it.

...Everyone who has ever opened up the Frontpage function bundled in their Office 2000 software considers themself to be a "Webmaster." Open a template, enter text, a picture or two and post! There you are! A bona fide Web Guru right there at Webmaster@boringpage.com!

Yes, it's true. Web building is easier than ever before. Hosting sites can now promise to help you "build a page in minutes" with whatever drag and drop program they use. Sites like Homestead will not even allow you to code your own pages anymore. Limited flexibility may increase the speed of productivity, but significantly takes away from the site's personality and creativity. Just like wearing the same suit as everyone else to a party, cookie-cutter sites are making the term "web presence" a misnomer.

...It's not that I have anything against these web sites or the people who use them. And I definitely do not have a problem with people using editors, either. (I use Dreamweaver for my site.) However, one has to agree that when it comes to the web, there are a lot of "patent leather" sites out there, and for each of these sites, there are two more just like it.

Then, what is the secret to creating a web site that is above and beyond the average Joe's site? The answer, my friend, is knowledge. Knowledge and the ability to use it wisely. That is the purpose of this site and what these tutorials are all about. Parlez-vous HTML?

On to Lesson One, then: The Basics.

Introduction - Let's Face It - Don't Get Me Wrong