When building a website, you are also going to need an HTML Editor. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. Do you really need to know this? Well, no, but someday it may come up as a trivia question. All joking aside, you need to know what html does. HTML is the language or script that a web browser reads to display a webpage. Ok, think of it this way, in a script for a play the actors are given lines to read in a particular order. HTML works the same way by using a series of easy, English based codes so that computers will understand what to do and when to do it.
So why do you need an editor. Well technically you don't. You could put all the code together using Notepad (a small text editor that is included with every windows based system). This is not recommended unless you feel like ripping out your hair, getting an ulcer, and generally driving yourself crazy. Having been there and done that, a good html editor is worth the small cost. Plus, it's cheaper than the potential medical bills.
A very good and very inexpensive HTML Editor is HomeSite . HomeSite is a nice little program that was sold to Adobe a while back and costs less than a hundred dollars. The software comes with a free trial period and is downloadable so you can get going right away. The program will color code the information automatically to help find what you are looking for. It also has some really nice dialog boxes to help fill in all the blanks necessary when working with a line of code.
There is also another really great program out there that was built off of HomeSite called Dreamweaver. Now Dreamweaver is absolutely terrific and has be called the industry standard of editors, however it costs quite a bit more (in the range of over three hundred dollars). Since HomeSite is so much cheaper, the examples in this course will be using this HTML Editor.
To download a free trial of HomeSite or for more information on Dreamweaver, click on an icon below to open up a new window.
