This is the section where I tell you about what you, as a coder, needs to know and what you can do to make it easier and better when you make the website. This focuses on what you can do to make your site better, in design and coding.

Quick Links

• What Program You Can Use
• What Browsers Your Viewers Use
• Your Viewer's Computer Information
• What Design Programs You Can Use
• Clean Coding

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What Program You Can Use - RETURN TO TOP
There is an almost unlimited supply of website development programs about. You want to pick one that suits your needs. Personally, I prefer to type all my code out myself, instead of a editor that fills in the gaps for me, created the website from a template Dreamweaver is a great program to get started with and if you aren't really into writing every character then you'd probably want it. It also has what is called a WYSIWYG Editor, which stands for 'What you see is what you get'. These editors are good if you have very little HTML or CSS (CSS is another web-language that I'll teach you about briefly) code knowledge and prefer for the computer to format the code into HTML and CSS automatically. This is a good technique although it doesn't give you full control and there can be problems from one browser to another. Also, when you get around to sorting out a problem, since you didn't code it yourself by hand, you don't exactly know where the problem occurred. It's a great program though, and is good for quick fixing, fast replacing and it has so many functions packed into it.
You can download a Dreamweaver 30-day trial at Macromedia.com

I use Notepad ++ for my sites, including this one. This is a great development from the original notepad and is perfect for all your web design languages. It's especially great for HTML and CSS because it marks our all the specific areas of the page, separating the codes by colours. It makes it so easy to develop and it has many functions, which is exactly what I need to create a site. I recommend this program if you prefer to write out your own code and can't spend much money online (Or none at all, in my case).
You can download Notepad ++ completely free at the Notepad ++ website.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands more out there, but I'm not going to list any more as those are the two main types, and the best of those kinds I've seen so far. There are a lot more, and others that I'm sure you'd prefer over those, so I suggest looking for your own that suits your needs.
Try searching Google or Download.com for more.

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What Browsers Your Viewers Use - RETURN TO TOP
There are a few browsers around, these days, some of them being Internet Explorer, Firefox, Oprah and Safari. That's only a few of the many browsers people can use to view your site, so you need to prepare yourself for people using them. To do this I suggest downloading the browsers you need to try it on and test it at you build the site. The two main internet browsers are Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox so I suggest downloading older versions of these two and testing your website in those older versions to see how compatible it is, because yes, people still use older browsers and older computers, sadly, which means you need to make your website work for them if you want to keep them happy.

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Your Viewer's Computer Information - RETURN TO TOP
There are a lot of things that computers have which can change your site. Screen Resolution is one of the big ones. People still have those tiny 800x600 screen sizes, so make sure you make your site workable to them too. For example, my site needs only 750 pixels of width to work in someone's browser, so it fits in even the 800x600 sized screens. If you do make it thin enough to do so, I suggest you centre the site so the blank space on each side is evenly share, instead of a huge area of nothing on huge screens.
Also, the colour quality can change the site too. 32-bit colour gives the best result, as this is the highest amount on many computers. This is also known as 'true colour'. The second highest is 16-bit colour. There isn't a great change here but in some places you can notice the difference. For example, although I don't like pointing flaws in my own work, in the background colours behind the heading of my site the fades below and above the navigation bar changes from a smooth gradient to a rough group of stripes.

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What Design Programs You Can Use - RETURN TO TOP
There are a lot of great things you can use to make your site great. Images are a good first step. If you, like me, can't spend money over the internet, or can't save money there is always cheap and great programs out there. For example, I use Paint.NET.
This is a great image editor, which was developed to 'replace' the original MSPaint you get with Windows. But they have done much more than replaced it. They have created an amazing program, which allows you to create almost anything you want. It's great for making logos, buttons, icons and diagrams for your site and for a low price of nothing, why not try it?

If you have lots of money to spare the next option could be Photoshop. This program is famous for it's amazing abilities to manipulate images, create high quality artwork and make amazing designs. Photoshop is great for making images for your site but the only flaw is the large price tag on it. You can check it out at Photoshop.com and buy the latest version for $649.

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Clean Coding - RETURN TO TOP
This is probably the best thing you can do to help you code easier. Make your coding simple and 'clean' by spacing it out. The only reason why this site's code wouldn't be clean is because I decided to began making this far too late and have a close deadline. Clean coding is simple to do. Just write out the code in a way that makes it easy to see the separated areas.
Here's a quick example I'll make:
As you can see the tags are seaparated out nicely so you can easily see what is contained in what. This makes it easy to understand what is in what and what your problems may be if you have layout problems.
I'll also use that style to lay out all coding I do in the following chapters so it's easy to read.

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Now let's get into it. Carry on to 'Where to Begin' to get started on the basics.