by mtkiff

Created on: March 27, 2009

If you want to learn how to create web pages in HTML, follow these 3 simple steps.

One, check out the book Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours. These 24 Hours books are great resources to get you to the meat of the information you need. They will get you started with the basics and even go into more advanced topics in simple hour by hour examples.

Two, check out the companion website to this Sams book, by visiting

The 24-Hour HTML Cafe. This website follows the examples of the book and is great place to start even if you do not purchase the book. You can skip around the site fairly quickly and look for the topics that interest you most. By following my suggestions in the next step, you will find yourself coding in no time.

Three, learn from the more than 180 million examples on the Internet. Most of us HTML coders learned by basically "stealing" code from websites already out there on the Internet. What do I mean by stealing you may ask? Well, most web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox have this great little tool called "Page Source" or "View Source".

The view source tool lets you see exactly how a web page was created. It displays all the code that was used to create the page that you are on. By looking at the code and comparing to the actual page you can start to learn how the site was put together. The great thing about learning this way is that you become immersed in the language. It is sort of like learning Spanish by spending time living in with others that only speak the language.

The page source is typically displayed in a simple notepad screen. The great thing about this, is that it also shows you that all you need to start creating a web page is Notepad! Yes, that's right, no software purchase required to start building web pages.

Now, if you go back to Step Two that I mentioned above and visit the 24-Hour website, you can start to use the View Source tool to see the actual code behind the examples. If you use Internet Explore 7, you can just click on the Page button on your toolbar and then select View Source. Alternately, if you do not have that button, choose the View menu and select Source. If you have Firefox, select the View menu and then select Page Source.

This is one of the simplest and fastest ways to get you started in learning HTML and you will be creating pages in no time! Good luck and welcome to the world of programming.

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