Heather Lee's

HTML Lesson Links

While learning html and working on the Emerald Empire, I have come across many good quality resource sites. The more web designers who are aware of them, the better the pages on the web are going to become. I have catagorized and listed many of my favorites for you below. There are many many good web page resources out there, but these should be enough to give you an idea of what to look for. If you wandered in here from a search engine and would like to learn about html, then feel free to visit my html lessons.

Good Freeware HTML and Graphic Programs

Arachnophilia: The download and instructions page for a good html editor, you can use shortcuts and menu's to add tags to your page (it saves you some typing). If you have trouble running the java based version, you can give Arachnophilia 4.0 a shot.
HTML-Kit: A really wonderful HTML editor that makes your life as a web page creator far easier, although it will probably take a bit of playing around to get the hang of the program. The HTML-Kit also lets you add plug-ins so that it can edit things like CSS and Javascript as well.
FTP Comander: This page has a version of FTP Comander that is free to download. FTP (file transfer protocal) is a method used to transfer files to the server, in other words its how your page goes from your comuter to being on line.
Mircrosoft Gif Animator 1.0: This is a very good program to have if you want to make .gif image files. You will need to create the pictures in another program (like Gimp or MS Paint) and the paste them into GIF Animator to make your animation. Since the new version of this program is no longer freeware I hightly recomend you download and save a copy of this program. Its getting very hard to find, as are all of the freeware .gif creators.
GIMP For Windows: The Gimp is an absolutely fabulous freeware 2d image editor, there are many plug-ins, tutorials, and web pages about working with the program. This is the download page for the windows version of Gimp, make sure that you download and install GTK+ 1.3 before installing The Gimp 1.2. on your computer. Both files are available on this page.
Blender: Blender is another wonderful freeware graphic program, but it is for 3d work. The learning curve on this one is super steep, but if you want to make your own 3d graphics I highly recomend it. There is tons of help and support information available.
POV-Ray: POV-Ray is another 3d graphic creator, but you creat the image by giving the program a text file to read. (You use text based comands to tell Pov-Ray what you want to draw. There is a super steep learning curve on this program as well, but your results can be well worth the effort.

Good HTML References and Tools

World Wide Web Consortium, or W3: This has to be the single most important link for web design that I can think of. It has information on HTML, XHTML, CSS, as well as information on proposed changes the the various internet technologies and tools for checking your web page code.
Index of HTML 4 Elements: A listing of tags and attributes put out by W3, very helpful when you need to figure out which elements you can use the that version of html.
MarkUp Validation Service: This is the link To W3's HTML validator... you can check files on the internet or on your computer. Validating your files is a very good habbit to get into.
DevGuru: This is another wonderful resource, it has "Quick References" for everything from HTML and CSS to Javascript. A good place to visit if you just need to know the use of a tag or a new attribute.
The DevGuru HTML Quick Reference: A listing of the varioius HTML tags and their attributes, just click on the tag you want to know more about.
DevGuru Color Chart: Colors do not display the same on all browsers, there is however a list of "web safe" colors that display similarly in most browsers. This Color chart shows each color and its code.
Web Sites That Suck: This is exactly what it seems...... lol, its a page that demonstrates things to be avoided on well designed pages. The Section on "Mystery Meat" navigation is worth looking at.
Dr. HTML: A free and fairly exaustive site analyzer. It looks at everything from HTML to spelling and browser support. A little daunting when you first get a list of errors, but worth the time to check out.
Bare Bones Guide to HTML: This is one of the very first site I found in my search to learn HTML, it basicly lists the various tags in a slightly more user friend wayt than W3, but it conforms to their recomendations. I highly recomend saving and printing up a copy of this guide to refer to.
Search Engine World - Tools: Tools that allow you to see what a search engine sees on your page, and what your key word density is like.
Web Page Workshop: Easy to navigate and some good information about HTML tags and character codes.

Doctype Information

Fix Your Site With The Right Doctype: This site explains more about what doctypes are and how to use them correctly.

Fun Stuff

Remeber not everyone has javascript enabled so try not to use it for navigation. These sites are also a little on the over kill side, but I'm sure you'll find something you like.

The Javascript Source: Lots and lots of free scripts that can be cut and pasted into your site, try not to over do it though ; )
Java File: More Scripts and Applets that are free for your site.

General Web Page Design Resources

These sites often have good information hidden in them, but they are a little bit overwhelming since so much is crammed into so little space.

Web Monkey: A mixture of references and how to guides for various web page technologies.
Web Reference: More references, tools, advice, and how to guides.
Web Site Wave: An still more references, tools, advice, etc......

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