Advanced Web Pages

About This Course

Take your Web design skills to the next level! Whether you want to work as a freelance Web designer, join a Web development team, or build websites for your organization, this course will give you the advanced tools you need.

In these lessons, you'll learn to write HTML code for page content and CSS code for page styling. You'll master cutting-edge techniques that take advantage of HTML5 and CSS3, the latest versions of the languages used to create modern websites.

With the help of step-by-step instructions, you'll build interactive websites that collect information from visitors through email signup and feedback forms. In addition, you'll learn the latest and most effective techniques for presenting layouts and video that work in any browsing environment from a desktop computer to a mobile device. Along the way, you'll explore aesthetics, color scheming, and accessible Web page design.

And don't worry if you have only the most basic exposure to Web design! This course walks you all the way through to purchasing and uploading your site to a remote server. You won't need any special software, either—just the text editor that comes installed with your computer.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced Web designer wanting to update and enhance your skills, this course is perfect for you. In just a few weeks, you'll be designing state-of-the-art websites that offer all the sophisticated elements that today's Web users expect to see.

About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be David Karlins.

David Karlins is the author of more than a dozen books on Web design that have sold over a million copies worldwide, and his articles on Web design have appeared in publications ranging from Macworld to Business Week. He has taught Web, graphic, and interactive design at San Francisco State University's Multimedia Studies Program and the University of California, Berkeley, Extension division. His Web design and consulting clients have ranged from Hewlett Packard to the Himalayan Fair.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

If you want to take your Web pages from okay to "wow," it’s time to move up to Web 2.0. In this lesson, you’ll explore the core elements of advanced Web design: interaction, animation, and page design that’s flexible and accessible to visitors on any device.

Friday - Lesson 02

Today, you’ll enter the world of advanced Web design by building your first CSS style sheet. When you’re done, you’ll link this style sheet to an HTML page and discover how you can instantly make changes to that page—or even to a thousand pages at the same time. In addition, you’ll explore some key elements of Web page design.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Your website text isn’t just a collection of words—it’s also a design element that can tell your visitors what you’re all about! In this lesson, you’ll find out how to specify the appearance of your text using your CSS style sheet. We’ll talk about setting your font size, color, line spacing, alignment, background, borders, margins, and padding.

Friday - Lesson 04

Links are a key part of any Web page, and there’s more to designing them than you might think. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create links that suit the purpose of your site, the technological sophistication of your audience, and the image you want to portray. In addition, we’ll raise that controversial question when it comes to link design: to underline, or not to underline?

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Today, you’ll expand your horizons by learning how to format selected page content. After that, you’ll take a big step into advanced design by discovering how to use class styles to design content boxes. In the process, you’ll learn all about two powerful Web design tools: div tags and span tags.

Friday - Lesson 06

Each Web page is unique, but three elements are almost universal: a container, a header, and a footer. In this lesson, you’ll build these three elements by combining a new tool—ID styles—with div tags. In addition, you’ll find out how to embed div tags within containers.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Today, you’ll take your layout to a new level by adding columns to your Web page. You’ll discover how to place multiple columns on a page, how to pad your columns, and how to create an attractive column layout that’s easy to read. In addition, we’ll make your columns interactive!

Friday - Lesson 08

Do you use a mobile device to browse the Web? More and more people do—and to keep them happy, you’ll need to provide mobile-friendly content. But how can you do that, and still design a page that works on a big screen? Today, you’ll find out how to create Web pages that look different, but still great, on both full-sized monitors and mobile devices.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Web designers always need to be thinking about the future—and that future will include HTML5. In this lesson, you’ll learn all about the advantages of this up-and-coming coding language, and you’ll add HTML5 elements to your own Web page. In addition, you’ll find out which environments currently support HTML5 and which ones don’t.

Friday - Lesson 10

A great video can increase your website traffic, sell your products, or even make you a superstar. But here’s the big issue you’ll face as a Web designer: Not all video formats work with all browsers. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to overcome that problem as you master simple tricks for embedding videos that will play in any browsing environment.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

What do you need to know about your website’s visitors—their names, their email addresses, or maybe even how they rate your site? Today, you’ll find out how to collect information like this (and much more) by adding forms to your pages. In these chapters, you’ll build your own form, add form fields, and define where your collected data will go.

Friday - Lesson 12

You’ve mastered it all—interactivity, animation, and accessibility—and you’re ready to call yourself an advanced Web designer. Now it’s time to take the next step and reveal your site to the world. Today, you’ll learn how to upload your site to the Web and how to check your spelling, links, accessibility, and browser compatibility. And here’s the great news: You’ll do it all for free!

Requirements

This course is suitable for Windows or Mac users. You will need Internet access, email, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

You will need to download and install a free code editor for Windows or Mac.