COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT BUILDING WEBSITES
What is HTML?
A web page is written in a language called Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. A web browser can interpret the source code and translate it for display on a users’ screen into text and graphics. By using special commands, known as tags, web page designers can format a text document for presentation, using different font types, colors and sizes. HTML also allows a web page designer to create the hyperlinks that allow users to jump from page to page, and to embed images or other files within a web page if desired.
How Do I Make an HTMl File?
In order to produce an HTML file, all that is really needed is a basic text editor – an HTML file is just a text file. Windows Notepad is ideal for this, as is SimpleText for those with Macintosh computers. Most web page designers now use one of the many HTML editors available now, such as Dreamweaver. These editors use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) approach, and will allow a designer to preview changes in the appearance of the web page as HTML code is added or modified.
Should I Use Flash?
Flash is a multimedia technology that can be used to add animation or video to a web page. Popular video sites such as YouTube use Flash to display the videos to their users. Much as Flash sites look very cool, there are a few disadvantages:
1. Flash will use more bandwidth. This will also make for longer loading times for your web pages, especially for those people who are still using a dial-up connection.
2. Search engines do not index Flash-based pages well. There is only a minimal amount of code, for the spiders used by search engines to access and find important keywords that describe what is on your page. This could mean that your site fails to rise to prominence in the search engine rankings.
What is Quality Website Content?
Keywords are still important, but the days when a web page could be judged solely on the keyword content are long gone. Why is this so? Two reasons. Firstly, in order to sell you need not only to attract visitors to your web site, but also when they do arrive you need to keep them there. Secondly, the way that web sites are ranked nowadays relies much more on the content of the site, and on the relevance of that content to the main subject of the web site.
Luckily, the type of content that will attract visitors, and help keep them there, is very similar to the type of content that will impress the bots that the major search engines use when indexing web sites. The key here is that the content needs to be relevant; otherwise it won’t be of any use.
What are Scripts?
In simple terms, a script is a segment of computer code that can extend or alter the way that the web browser interprets the HTML code that makes up a web page. The result of this type of alteration is known as Dynamic HTML, or DHTML. Such scripts can be split in to two different classes; client-side scripts, which are executed by the users’ own web browser software, or server-side scripts, where the HTML to be sent to the browser is altered by a script running on the web server itself.
Client-side scripts are executed by the users’ own web browser. These scripts can be used for a number of different things. Some depend on input from the user, for example to change an image when the user moves the mouse pointer over it. The majority of these client-side scripts are written in JavaScript, though other languages such as Visual Basic Script, or VBScript, are sometimes used.
Client-side scripts can be used in one of two ways. Many are written as part of the HTML code for the web page – this is known as an embedded script. Others are written as a separate file, which is accessed as needed from the web server. This is still client-side scripting though, as the actual execution of the script takes place on the users’ own web browser.
Server-side scripts run on the web server itself, and the resulting web page is then delivered to the user, normally in the form of HTML code. One common use for such server-side scripts are to act as interfaces to databases, for example for use as a shopping cart for an ecommerce site, although there are many other uses. Server-side scripts are normally written in PHP or Perl, for Unix/Linux based web servers, or ASP, which is normally used on Windows-based servers.
What is CSS?
Cascading style sheets, or CSS, is a language designed to allow a designer to specify how a document should be presented. CSS can be used with any markup language, but its main use is with the HTML code that makes up a web page. CSS has simplified web page design in many ways. It is a lot easier to ensure that all pages on a particular site have a consistent look, simply by using a single style sheet for the whole web site. It is also a lot easier to change the style used for the web site, as rather than editing the HTML code for every page, all that a designer need do is change the appropriate style sheet.
Resources