2.21.2009

By George, I Think She's Got It!

It's snowing here. Again. And I have to work. Well, not really WORK, per se. It's more MONITORING than anything. Thank goodness for laptops and wireless access. And Diet Coke.

I've been wanting to learn HTML for a long time. Web page design is fascinating to me, from both a creative standpoint and also from a personal development standpoint. I'm pretty sure that both SS#1 and The Manimal are going to blow me out of the water with their computer skills at some point in the future, but I figure that learning HTML/Web Design might at least give me a fighting chance! :)

I have a friend from college who's a website designer, and what fascinates me most about her is that it's really her second career. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in music education, she sure didn't start out to be a web designer, so I figure there's hope for me yet!

So I did a little online research, figuring that SOMEWHERE in the vast world wide web there would be SOMEONE who offered free online tutorials, and sure enough, I found one. Well, I actually found several, but one was plenty to start.

I went to the Quackit HTML Tutorial and spent about 90 minutes. Now, I'm no expert, by ANY stretch of the imagination, but I was able to learn enough to write this whole post in HTML mode! All by myself!

The link above? I didn't use the handy-dandy little blogger tool. I personally typed the code in with my own ten fingers!

Not only did I learn how to make a link, like you see above, but I also learned some other cool tricks...

  • like

  • bullet

  • points


  1. and

  2. numbered

  3. lists


And how to make things really colorful!



I even learned how to embed graphics.

This one worked pretty well. Kind of wonky looking, but it was from the tutorial library.

Smile

This one didn't work so well. I haven't opened a Flickr or Picasa account yet, and my link to the photo on Snapfish was broken. But see how it says "SS#1 Spring"? I made sure it would say what the pic was in case it didn't work!

SS#1 Spring

I also learned how to make a quick e-mail link. You all can e-mail me and let me know how much fun you're having with HTML!

I'm having lots of fun playing with my new baby skills. While it does take a bit more time to enter everything in HTML, it's a cool way to practice. When you're typing in Blogger HTML, however, be sure not to flip between the HTML and Compose modes accidentally. It really does a number on the code and you have re-enter every.single.tag.

Thank goodness for Diet Coke.




3 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been wanting to learn HTML!!!! How cool...off to check out the link!

Jenners said...

Good for you! It is fun to play around with this stuff. If you undertake any big blog makeovers, be sure to practice somewhere first (practice/test blog) -- trust me, I know!

Ryan Ashley Scott said...

Wow! I am super impressed with your new skills. Maybe I'll rethink learning something like this, it's so cool.