My 10 and 8 year olds are really into the internet lately, and want to make their own websites.
I’ve trained them how to use Photoshop for image manipulation… now I’m deciding what to use to teach them html/css.
I use Dreamweaver, but need something lighter + simple for the kids. Looking for suggestions for a free/cheap html editor… if it has built in FTP capabilities that’s a bonus. I plan on teaching them how to actually design with CSS, work with scripts, learn tags, etc. etc… and not just go completely wysiwyg.
Any input or feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks
there is a book called “Design For Teens” by Maneesh Sethi … its a very cool resource i think they should read some of it first it include a very easy and crystal clear explaination about designing a webpage, XHTML and also CSS and then make them digg deep and open an editor , and my recommendation to you, if you are use PC , you can use an editor called “Easy Html Creator” its an easy editor…
No it isn’t - that site is not being kept up to date by the two guys who created it so there are some things it says that are no longer correct or where better alternatives have been worked out since they wrote it.
I would agree with teaching them to hand code Toni, it makes better sense to avoid getting them into bad habits (which visual WYSIWYG editors tend to give). If you want to keep things simple in terms of software you could just get them started with Notepad, it’s very sparse of functionality but it makes coding HTML and CSS as simple as typing text, theres plenty of good books which can introduce people to HTML and CSS for the first time.
My personal recommendation if you want a book for them to read alongside learning would be Head First HTML and CSS (which has a lot of images, quirky doodles and interesting bits and pieces), it’s actually well written though they probably didn’t have kids in mind, I would certainly recommend it for such use.
I think that is an excellent suggestion. Kids would probably enjoy that book even more than adults would and it is a good introduction to HTML and CSS.
Stephen – Komposer seems to be just perfect as far as the features I was looking for… very cool, thanks!
I wasn’t planning on giving them any books. I was just going to go the “learn by doing” route… (I’ve taught a few friends this way)… but I’m sure some reading material will help, so thanks for those suggestions too.
[QUOTE=AlexDawson;4381792]I would agree with teaching them to hand code Toni, it makes better sense to avoid getting them into bad habits (which visual WYSIWYG editors tend to give). If you want to keep things simple in terms of software you could just get them started with Notepad, it’s very sparse of functionality but it makes coding HTML and CSS as simple as typing text, theres plenty of good books which can introduce people to HTML and CSS for the first time.
Notepad is not a fun way to learn how to code, imo.
I dig more robust html editors with file management, find + replace features, keyboard shortcuts and built-in ftp… even though I don’t use the wysiwyg/drag&drop features. I plan to teach the kids all these handy skills, too.
Syntax highlighting is the most important feature that stops Notepad from being a useful HTML (etc.) editor, IMO. Find and replace with regular expressions and control of indentation would be next I think.
I just found out about this site: http://scrunchup.com/about/
It’s a site for young people. Not much there at the moment but definitely worth keeping an eye on!
raena, that’s a great site, there isn’t a lot of good material out there for people who have absolutely no idea where they should be directing themselves, good find
“Komposer seems to be just perfect as far as the features I was looking for”
if that works out for you, there is a pretty good beginners tutorial on using Kompozer at the site wizard
I used it a few years ago to build my first site. But also consider setting them up with an account at wordpress.com that they can use for more immediate results.
