My Reflections

Before I took this course, I knew absolutely nothing about how Internet publishing works. I think the first time I did any sort of web design was from a small assignment from my intro to computers class were we use a bit of HTML. It was only one time though, the rest of the course was just an overall view of how computers work. I also did a small project on Weebly, however, the process of making a webpage through that was different. 

To explain this course, you don't need to get super complicated right off the bat. I think a lot of people might be scared of getting because some might see any kind of programming super complicated. I would explain to them that it's almost like putting puzzle pieces together. Know the different types of tags and elements using HTML and CSS becomes a breeze. Being said you won't remember all the tags in one sitting, but as you can to use HTML more and more you'll get the hang of it.

Two things I found most interesting so was accessibility tools and the use of CSS. I was surprised to learn how adaptable HTML became for those with disabilities. With tools like screenreader, those who are sight impaired or blind makes the Internet more assessable for them. The whole topic of CSS was really interesting for me. Having so many different options available to you to customize your webpage from just your own notepad was amazing to learn. 

I think the most valuable skills I learned from this course was understanding HTML coding overall. They might be able to help me assist my family members in their careers. My mother has said that she does not code herself. If I'm able to expand my skill set in HTML, I will be able to assist in coding or websites, so that shall no longer have to pay others to do it for her.

One problem I encountered during an assignment was from a module. One of the steps required that we bolded certain sections of the paragraphs using the CSS style font-weight element instead of using the strong tag. However, I wasn't sure how to proceed. If I had used a class attribute in the p tag, the entire paragraph would be bolded, which was not the goal. After a little bit of searching, I discovered the span tag. With the span tag, you can apply CSS elements to specific sections of your paragraph. So all I had to do was surround the text in the paragraph I wanted to apply the changes to with the span tags, and then add the class attribute. And presto! I successfully bolded the words in the paragraph without the need of the strong tag.

So far, I hadn't used too many resources in this course. I was always comfortable with using notepad. I'm sure there are much more advanced and easy to use code editors out there, but currently, notepad works fine. I did find Google fonts really fascinating, however. Being able to easily implement all kinds of different fonts for your webpages is very convenient, so I definitely see myself using that service sometime in the future.

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