How TO - Make a Website
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How TO - Make a Website
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Learn how to create a responsive website that will work on all devices,
PC, laptop, tablet, and phone.
Create a Website from Scratch
Demo
Try it Yourself
A "Layout Draft"
It can be wise to draw a layout draft of the page design before creating a website:
Navigation bar
Side Content
Some text some text..
Main Content
Some text some text..
Some text some text..
Some text some text..
Footer
First Step - Basic HTML Page
HTML is the standard markup language for creating websites and CSS is the language that describes the style of an HTML document. We will combine HTML and CSS to create a basic web page.
Note: If you don't know HTML and CSS, we suggest that you read out HTML Tutorial.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
<meta
charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,
initial-scale=1">
<style>
body
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>My Website</h1>
<p>A website created by me.</p>
</body>
</html>
Try it Yourself »
Example Explained
- The
<!DOCTYPE html>declaration defines this document to be HTML5 - The
<html>element is the root element of an HTML
page - The
<head>element contains meta information about the document - The
<title>element specifies a title for the document - The
<meta>element should define the character set to be UTF-8 - The
<meta>element with name="viewport" makes the website look good on all devices and screen resolutions - The
<style>element contains the styles for the website (layout/design) - The
<body>element contains the visible page content - The
<h1>element defines a large heading - The
<p>element defines a paragraph
Creating Page Content
Inside the <body> element of our website, we will use our "Layout
Draft"
and create:
- A header
- A navigation bar
- Main content
- Side content
- A footer
<!--
Semantic Elements
HTML5 introduced several new semantic elements. Semantic elements are
important to use because they define the
structure of web pages and helps screen readers and
search engines to read the page correctly.
These are some of the most common semantic HTML elements:
The <section> element can be used to define a part of a
website with related content.
The <article> element can be used to define an
individual piece of content.
The <header> element can be used to define a header
(in a document, a
section, or an article).
The <footer> element can be used to define a footer
(in a document, a section, or an article).
The <nav> element can be used to define a container of navigation links.
In this tutorial we will use semantic elements.
However, it is up to you if you want to use <div> elements instead.
-->
Header
A header is usually located at the top of the website (or right below a top
navigation menu). It often contains a logo or the website name:
<div class="header">
<h1>My Website</h1>
<p>A website
created by me.</p>
</div>Then we use CSS to style the header:
.header
padding: 80px; /* some padding */
text-align: center; /* center the text */
background: #1abc9c;
/* green background */
color: white; /* white text color */
/* Increase the font size of the <h1> element */
.header h1
font-size: 40px;
Try it Yourself »
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Navigation Bar
A navigation bar contains a list of links to help visitors navigating through
your website:
<div class="navbar">
<a href="#">Link</a>
<a href="#">Link</a>
<a href="#">Link</a>
<a href="#" class="right">Link</a>
</div>Use CSS to style the navigation bar:
/* Style the top navigation bar */
.navbar
overflow: hidden; /* Hide overflow */
background-color: #333;
/* Dark background color */
/* Style the navigation bar links */
.navbar
a
float: left; /* Make sure that the links stay
side-by-side */
display: block; /* Change the display to
block, for responsive reasons (see below) */
color: white; /* White text color */
text-align: center;
/* Center the text */
padding: 14px 20px; /* Add some padding */
text-decoration: none;
/* Remove underline */
/*
Right-aligned link */
.navbar a.right
float: right;
/* Float a link to the right */
/*
Change color on hover/mouse-over */
.navbar a:hover
background-color: #ddd; /* Grey background color */
color: black;
/* Black text color */
Try it Yourself »
Content
Create a 2-column layout, divided into a "side content" and a "main content".
<div class="row">
<div class="side">...</div>
<div
class="main">...</div>
</div>We use CSS Flexbox to handle the layout:
/* Column container */
.row
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
/* Create
two unequal columns that sits next to each other */
/* Sidebar/left column
*/
.side
flex: 30%; /* Set the width of the sidebar
*/
background-color: #f1f1f1; /* Grey background color
*/
padding: 20px; /* Some padding */
/* Main column */
.main
flex: 70%; /* Set the width of the main content */
background-color: white; /* White background color */
padding: 20px; /* Some padding */
Try it Yourself »
Then add media queries to make the layout responsive. This will make sure
that your website looks good on all devices (desktops, laptops, tablets and
phones). Resize the browser window to see the result.
/* Responsive layout - when the screen is less than 700px wide, make the two
columns stack on top of each other instead of next to each other */
@media
screen and (max-width: 700px)
.row
flex-direction: column;
/*
Responsive layout - when the screen is less than 400px wide, make the
navigation links stack on top of each other instead of next to each other */
@media screen and (max-width: 400px)
.navbar a
float: none;
width: 100%;
Try it Yourself »
Tip: To create a different kind of layout, just change the flex width (but make sure that it adds up to 100%).
Tip: Do you wonder how the @media rule works? Read more about
it in our CSS Media Queries chapter.
Tip: To learn more about the Flexible Box Layout Module, read our
CSS Flexbox chapter.
Footer
At last, we will add a footer.
<div class="footer">
<h2>Footer</h2>
</div>And style it:
.footer
padding: 20px; /* Some padding */
text-align: center; /* Center text*/
background: #ddd;
/* Grey background */
Try it Yourself »
Congratulations! You have built a responsive website from scratch.
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