So far our road to Webville has consisted only of HTML files that lived on our computers. Chapter 4 explodes from the gate with the promise of getting us on the Web! Already? Wow! But hey, I guess it’s kind of the point here. Step one is finding a web hosting company—of which there are many. (Oh so that’s how they do it! kidding.) Choosing the one that’s right for you when you’re just starting out can be overwhelming so I asked around. No sooner had I “tweeted” my query and I was suddenly receiving recommendations such as Westhost, Media Temple, Dreamhost, Dathorn and Web Hosting Geeks, to name a few. Luckily I didn’t have to pick one right away, and at the time of this posting I’m still figuring it out. And waiting for my partner in crime to catch up. We’ll get there.

Now with any website there comes the web address, or URL, of course. (That’s, U-R-L, not Earl, right? Good.) We all know this by now. But what do the different parts do; what do they mean; and why? Just because you don’t have to know for it to work, I like knowing that my request and response protocol (http) is making the connection between the Web server and my browser. And I love it when the Uniform Resource Locator locates my resource. But that’s just me. The design and computer world is filled with codes and shorthands and acronyms a-plenty. EPS, JPG, TIFF, PDF…they all stand for something. Someday it might come up at a party and I don’t mind being that guy who can tell you.

The chapter closes with an indepth look at the difference between relative paths (for linking to pages within your site), and URLs for external links. Also very helpful, and new to me, was the id attribute to create a destination anchor; and the target attribute that will open your link in another browser window. A feature I prefer when I’m surfing the web. I’m going to start using this when I post links on Flickr.

Before there was the HTML element, there was the typing element. Memories of high school typing class have resurfaced. 1984 or 85. We learned in a room with row upon row of IBM Selectrics and prop-up books of nonsense word strings.  I’m not so bad with sentences, it’s the numbers and symbols on a keyboard that slow me down. Especially the unnatural actions of making my right middle and ring fingers bend down to key in those dratted angle brackets. Seriously, how do you web coders do it without losing pace or speed? There are so many of them required in this stuff!

Chapter 3, “Web Page Construction,” was a bit long. I tried to ignore some missing punctuation in the beginning (in the illustration on page 78), but I have very strong feelings about prime marks being called quotation marks (page 86). We learned the <q> and <blockquote> elements; the <br> element, which is like a soft return (shift + return); and 3 types of list tags.

…At which point I went off track and searched the web till I found this handy article on curling straight quotes. Straight quotes are a.k.a. dumb quotes, but they are in fact inch marks or double prime marks. Being able to make correct quote and apostrophe marks makes me happy. A friend has wondered how I will deal with the limitations of type on the web. Maybe I waited long enough to learn web that those limitations are minimal?

Block elements, inline elements, nesting. I’m glad the authors are emphasizing correct structuring. I am learning this and I like things that are logical, I just wish it didn’t take so long to actually write the HTML.

I suppose it’s on par with knowing the difference between font, typeface, type style, and type family, but we’re having trouble keeping track of the new terminology. Tags, content, elements, attributes… I guess it’ll come with practice. Jim already uses the href attribute in Flickr. It’s all new to me since WordPress has a button to press to make something a clickable link. 

The crossword puzzle at the end of each chapter is quirky. It’s not very complex in its structure, and the clues are sometimes a stretch. Jim said he cheats if he doesn’t know the answer. I go back and look through the chapter to see if I can’t figure it out before resorting to peaking at the answers. So for me, it’s a good way to review the lessons.

The coolest thing is that on the way home from church yesterday morning, my 13-year-old stepson saw the book in my purse and wanted to borrow it. I said it was a workbook and we’d buy him his own if he wanted to learn web design. Did he? “Yes.”

So, Chapter 1: “Getting to know HTML” is history, and—pesky printing details aside—we’re excited to have gotten underway. We liked the writing style and appreciate the repetition used in the exercises to really drive the instructions home. The authors emphasize that this book is not simply about showing us how to do these things, but about teaching us. And even though it’s still early in our journey I’m confident it will live up to its promise.

I was happy to discover that some of the HTML basics they go over were not totally foreign to me. I took a class in Dreamweaver about 9 years ago (and as I write this I can’t believe it’s been that long!), and I already use some basic HTML code in my descriptions and comments on Flickr.

The information definitely stayed true to the chapter’s title, and I definitely got to know HTML a bit better. But at the same time I enjoyed that we did not start out as total strangers. And already, I’m starting to think that the web might not be all that scary.

Our plan: Chapter 1 by this afternoon. Jim is going to do a write-up, but I wanted to make a couple of comments. This is going to be a great book for learning HTML, CSS, and XHTML, but…

I can’t help it — it bothered me that the text was written with two spaces after the periods. It should have been changed/fixed in the text formatting of the book. This convention is especially troublesome where Helvetica Condensed is used, as it creates big white holes in the texture of the text. 

And, most of the color images in the book are too dark. There should have been more ink compensation for the dot gain on uncoated paper.

Chapter 2 by next Sunday.

Typeset text should have only one space after punctuation such as periods and colons.

For the past year or more, we’ve hemmed and hawed about not knowing any (me) or much (him) web stuff.

The inspiration that put us over the top was this. And we’re starting with this book: Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML . I ordered mine today. I hope Jim did, too. We talked about and decided to do this together. Like book buddies, or a book club of two, so we can keep each other accountable and encourage each other. 

I thought it would be interesting to document the process. And maybe it will help us to keep at it. A bit of cyber peer pressure if you will. Jim doesn’t know about the blog yet, but I’m hoping he’ll write some posts as well. (BTW, this is my first blog, so I’ll be figuring that out as well.)

Wish us luck?