Before taking this course, I didn’t know much about internet publishing. The only thing I knew was it involved creating websites using the HTML programing language. This was my first time working with HTML code. I was surprised in how quickly I picked it up. I completed a C++ programing cource in the past. The HTML Code structure is similar in a lot of ways. I didn’t have any web publishing experience prior to taking this course. I’m happy to say that I have learned a lot about internet publishing through taking this course!
In internet publishing, you start off with a blank HTML sheet. The HTML sheet will contain codes and tags which act like instructions. The web browser will read these instructions off the HTML sheet and output them into a web page. The neat thing about HTML is the user can easily create a stylish webpage just by adding the proper code (syntax) in the correct order. The barebones structure for an HTML sheet starts off the same for any webpage. A user can add as much or as little content as they want. Once a person learns the basics like formatting text, they can move on to inserting graphics, creating list and tables, embedding clickable links (hyperlinks), editing the page background, adding scroll bars, custom positioning of objects/content, etc. The possibilities are endless with HTML.
Before taking this course, I was interested in learning how to customize a webpage. I wanted to learn how to insert images and change the web pages background. I also wanted to learn how to customize text, embed links, position items and add scroll bars. I have found that completing these tasks weren’t as scary as I thought. HTML code makes it possible to totally customize a web page any way you want. When I stared this course, my web pages looked plain and boring. After learning more about the code, my web pages started to come alive and look for stylish.
I was happy to learn how to insert, reposition, and change the size of images from the web. Since I couldn’t broadcast my own images, learning how to embed images from the internet was necessary. I’ve learned how to obtain an image URL from a webpage. Common web browsers have a developer tools option. When enabled, this feature should you most of the code used inside a webpage. To obtain the direct URL of an image from the internet, a user can right click on the images and select inspect element. I used this trick to insert the images into my recipe book project. Many of the different styles can be written directly to an HTML sheet. Some of the more advanced styling feature require a CSS sheet (cascading style sheets). CSS is a different code language than HTML. A Cascading Style Sheet can be linked to an HTML sheet to alter the web pages style attributes.
The most challenging styles that took me longer to learn were using web fonts and positioning elements. Web fonts are a font family that is introduced into an HTML page from the internet instead of from the user’s device. A CSS sheet is required for this option. This allows the web designer to control the exact visual output of their web page. Since not every device contains the same font library, web designers must write several back up font styles in case the initial font family isn’t available. This can change the whole appearance of the webpage. Therefore, web fonts can be a very useful tool.
The most challenging task I had to learn was how to reposition several images, paragraphs and a list on a web page. This process contains several different style attributes and calculations for each item. It took me hours to complete my party invite project because I had to figure the different measures to move each item to an exact location. This is an area I will probably need more practice in.
When I ran into problems, I had several different tools at my disposal. I would review the khan videos and code examples repeatedly. I would also try to find examples of the proper syntax online. I would also look for video examples on YouTube. I also found these resource sites to be very useful: W3Schools, CSS Trick, and Google. I would combine everything together with hands-on trial and error. I used the program Visual Studio 2015 to help me create all my HTML and CSS Pages. This Program helps the user learn and write the correct code by provide an autofill options box that would show all possible options for completing the line as its being writing. This program is a great learning tool for helping me create HTML and CSS Pages.
I have found the assignment for this course to be very useful. I have learned a lot about web publishing, writing HTML code and creating custom web pages. The Khan Academy is a great learning tool. I have found the tutorial videos mixed with the hands-on activities and the custom web page projects to be very helpful. The Course dropbox projects have been extremely helpful as well. These projects would have helped me apply my knowledge to create custom webpages. I consider myself to be more of a visual learner. The mix of the visual examples and the hands-on activities helped me to learn a lot about web publishing. The course instructor (Tammy Ray) was very helpful as well. She was available to quickly answer questions and offer help when needed. Most online instructors don’t interact much with their students. I am considering expanding my knowledge of web publishing after I have completed this course. I think Web design would be a neat and creative field to enter.
Source: Elgin Community College