While some may be deterred by the seeming complexity of the web design process, first timers will find this newly revised edition of Web Design for Beginners to be an essential handbook. Spelling out all the basics, it will teach you how to use HTML and CSS to create and style your website, before honing the user experience with more advanced techniques. You will also discover how to use Photoshop to produce graphics, SEO to get your website recognised by the likes of Google, and social media buttons to boost your site’s interactivity. Featuring: Essential guide to web design - Discover why now is the time to start building your own website. An introduction to HTML - HTML is the basic building block of the web, is easy to learn and offers limitless possibilities. New ways to work with Photoshop - Should you design in Photoshop or the browser? Both mediums have their merits. The science of SEO - Find out just what it takes to get a site ranked highly on search engines.

Welcome to Web Design for Beginners

Essential guide to web design • Discover why now is the time to start building your first website

An introduction to HTML • HyperText Markup Language, more commonly know as HTML, is the basic building block of the web. It provides the structure, content and connection between pages, allowing web designers to create interactive experiences. Easy to learn, it offers limitless possibilities…

Create a basic layout • Code up your first basic skeleton for a two-column webpage using HTML5

Code a link • Adding in links to other pages in your site and external sites is a key part of web design

Create lists in your website • Learn how to quickly create various lists within your webpages using HTML

Learn to use div tags • Learn about the all-important div tag in HTML and how it’s used to group content

Create a three-column layout • Put what you’ve learnt so far into practice and make the popular three-column webpage structure using HTML5

An introduction to CSS • If HTML provides the structure for a website, CSS provides the form. This is the language that will make your site stand out

Centre your page • Using CSS to wrap your page’s content in div tags gives you great control over the way it’s displayed

Define text & heading styles • Create CSS rules for displaying the text on the page

Style your lists to stand out • Standard lists tend to be a bit boring, so spice them up with some CSS styling

Turn lists into navigation bars • Every website needs some sort of navigation, so why not use CSS for it?

Format images using CSS • Use CSS to gain precise control over the display of images on your website

Style a two-column layout • Use the HTML and CSS skills you’ve learnt so far to create and style a two-column page layout

Create a header • Learn how to create a clean, simple and effective header for your website

Create a sidebar • Learn how to create a clean navigation system for your website

Add content to your website • Learn how you can add content to the main area of your website

Add content to your footer • Finish off your first site with a footer to be proud of

WordPress: A New Era • Version 4.4 introduces a host of exciting new features. Take a look at what’s on offer, and the best themes and plugins to complement the release

WordPress 4.4: What’s new? • As version 4.4 is the next major release of WordPress, there are many new features. Find out what you need to implement now

10 must-have plugins • WordPress is great out of the box, but if you need additional functionality take a look at some of the must-have plugins

Download, install and set up a self-hosted site • The path to a perfect blog starts right at the...