From the beginning, HTML has always been perceived as a very simple “language” to learn.  With only a few simple tags, you could mark up a document and put it online.  HTML was very forgiving, flexible and intuitive. However, this same simplicity was HTML’s biggest weakness. You could easily make a headline, add an image, make a list, or create a form. However, you had no control over how that content would look once a visitor to your site called it up. Tables would resize themselves willy-nilly Read more [...]

Note: This is also available as a functionality demo, so is left relatively unformatted here. If you want to give your readers the ability to interact with your site – to send information to it rather than simply receive information from it – you’ll need to move beyond basic HTML. Forms are used to gather data from your users. When you use a search engine or enter a login name and password, you’ve seen a form in action. A form is simply a block of HTML that can receive and act on data entered Read more [...]

HTML is the language that web browsers and web servers use to display web pages. HTML “tags,” when added to a plain text document, instruct web browsers how to display that content on a web page. If a web page is a house, its HTML code is its blueprint. HTML History HTML stands for hypertext markup language. British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML and the World Wide Web in 1990. Learn more about Berners-Lee and his invention here. True, you don’t absolutely need to learn HTML to create Read more [...]

Next Section: Page Layout and Design

Just like photography, digital technology has changed forever the practice of audio recording. Options stretch from dirt cheap to very high-end. In all cases, however, you may also need to consider the following equipment to record audio: A device capable of recoding audio. Your options include: A computer. Laptops are useful to take on location, but desktop machines can also be used if you are recording something, such as an interview, that can be done in a home or office. If you are using Read more [...]

To avoid losing all your hard work in a random hard-drive crash, it’s important to make copies of all your important files. In computing, these are generally known as “backups.” A favorite saying goes: “There are those computer users who back up their work, and those who will.” In other words, everyone will eventually run into computer glitch that compromises their data, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. So we absolutely recommend you make backup copies of all your work, from early drafts Read more [...]

A computer without software is like a kitchen without pots and pans. To run a community media site, you’ll need several types of software. We’ll suggest some first-class industry standards in each category, then point out more basic alternatives that might also fit your needs. HTML Editors There are two types of HTML editors. Text editors let you work directly with HTML code. For web coders with a solid knowledge of HTML, text editors offer greater control to write cleaner, more efficient code. Read more [...]

If you’re encouraging readers to submit photos, your community reporters will need a digital camera to snap photos of local stories and events. A good resource for digital camera buyers is Digital Photography Review, http://www.dpreview.com/. It has a useful side-by-side camera comparison feature. However, if you don’t want to delve into the minutiae of digital photography statistics, we can recommend several cameras. In general, Canon cameras have excellent color and contrast. And for less Read more [...]