Webpages are hypertext documents, meaning they can be displayed on a computer or other electronic device. The term webpage usually refers to resources on the World Wide Web, but it may also be used to refer to their source code. The basic recipe of a webpage:

1. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) for structure
2. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for appearance
3. Scripts for interaction

We’re going to cover the first two pieces in this lesson, with which you can create static webpages and understand more about the ones you visit.

Motivation

We all use webpages all the time. They’re great for sharing information and enabling transactions. They’re also easily updated. For example, if I printed the lessons for this course, put them in a binder and gave everyone a copy, I wouldn’t be able to update those copies. A webpage, on the other hand, refreshes every time you visit it. So when I realize I’ve made a mistake in this lesson, I correct the page and all evidence of my mistake vanishes (unless of course you’ve saved an old copy, but most of us don’t make a habit of saving webpages for future reference).

Software Tools

There are frameworks and software tools available to help create webpages without coding, e.g.

• Adobe Dreamweaver
• WordPress
• Webflow

Many programs you may already use, e.g., Microsoft Word, include the option to export a file as a webpage.

With constantly advancing technology, tools become outdated or inferior to something new, but the end product is always the same: HTML and CSS plain text source files. We’ll focus on the universal technology of HTML and CSS, which can be rendered by any modern browser.

...