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Essential Assets For Aspiring WordPress Developers

I’ve posted the rough details on beginning WordPress development, now I’ll get into the specifics. There are many skills that go into becoming a solid web developer, I’ll cover a specific skill in this and the following posts. I could just dump it all out into one long intimidating article, but it would chase you off or bore you so I’ll try to keep them short and to the point.

Basic HTML and CSS Skills:

It’s tempting to start diving into a pre-built theme and start jacking up the code with snippets from around the web. If you want to be successful you’ll need to start with HTML basics.

Q. WordPress themes and plug-ins are written using PHP, so why does knowing HTML and CSS matter?

A. PHP is it’s own language, but HTML is woven into the core. CSS allows you to express your artistic/creative touch.

If you already know basic HTML and CSS you can probably skip to the next post. For the beginners I’ll provide you with a few good sites that will help you learn the right way. Anyone can do a Google search and find tutorials, but the truth is many or most of the articles you find were posted for SEO purposed and the author didn’t actually care about quality. When I started I followed several dead end suggestions trying to learn. That will waste your time and cause you to freak out and write mean replies which will fall on deaf ears, smash keyboards, cuss at inanimate objects, and other mean and nasty things!

HTML Tutorials:

CodeCademy- This website offers interactive lessons that allow you to progress at your own pace. You can create an account for free so you can keep track of your progress.

Features-

• Step by Step, short tutorials
• Hints if you get stuck
• Progressive difficulty which should accelerate the learning process
• The code editor has a Result Button so you can instantly see how the code is displayed in a browser
• A helpful HTML Glossary Section so you can look up any terms you’re unsure of the meaning

Try to avoid the temptation of wandering off into the other scripting tutorials for now, you’ll have time for that later. When you can create a complete page on your own without hints or templates you will be ready to begin CSS.