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HTML Tutorial: Tools
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Last step before you write your first HTML!
Screwdrivers? No, we need software tools. You need three things:
- a text editor
- a browser
- a web host provider
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Your Text Editor
You cannot use your word processor.
You want a plain text editor that generates nothing but what you type. In Windows, Notepad will work. (For much better choices, Google "free text editor" and try one or two. NoteTab Light was my Windows choice.) As I write this, I'm using Kwrite in Linux.
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Your Browser
MSIE 6 and earlier don't have tabs. You'll want a tabbed browser such as MSIE 7, Opera or Firefox. You'll want a tab for this tutorial, and another tab where you'll view the web page you're working on. The instructions here will be specific to Firefox. Firefox is free, multi-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) and it renders my most complex pages sensibly.
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Your Web Host Provider
When you're ready to put your site on the web you'll need a web hosting service. That's neither difficult nor expensive, but we're not ready, yet. It's all explained in the final topic, Web Hosting. Go there now if you want to lock up a particular domain name while you build your site.
Experiment
I know you want to get started, but if all you've got for tools are MSIE and Notepad, you're going to get frustrated. Get NoteTab Light (the free version) to edit your HTML.
Challenge
MSIE's not adequate when you get to the HTML Poster. The examples here are all given for Firefox which is a good, free choice. However, on Windows your best bet is Opera. The free version is fine.
Ready to write some HTML?