What is Coding?

Coding looks intimidating, and the complex sequences of letters, numbers, and symbols definitely doesn’t help. Despite its frightening display, designers, journalists and other communicators use coding to operate their news apps and media websites. Knowing some of the coding basics gives journalists the power to turn any idea into their desired look.

This is a basic coded webpage. The first slide shows what raw code looks like: a sequence of symbols, letters and numbers placed in a text editing software. The second slide — the yellow page — shows what the coding looks like when loaded into a browser to show what we know as a webpage.

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What You’ll Need

Despite its complex appearance, programmers write codes in text editors. While you can use a simple text editor (just be sure to turn off the Rich Text properties), it’s easier to use an HTML editor. HTML editors are text editors specially made to write code. Brackets is a good place to start because it’s versatile and has tools built in to help you. 

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Coding Languages

Learn HTML

HTML is the basics of coding and serves as the building blocks of the internet.

Learn CSS

CSS goes with HTML and is used to style websites .

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