The big picture

For my students

When first learning HTML, there is a lot of information to take in. Keeping an eye on the BIG PICTURE can go a long way towards preventing overwhelm. The main web technologies are HTML, CSS, DOM, and Javascript. That’s four different technologies that are often offered as one beginning course in many colleges. Obviously, you are not going to master any of it by the end of one  semester.  So don’t stress yourself out thinking you need to.

If you remember these simple facts going forward, you can understand which technologies are used for which roles. It’ll help them organized in your head and allow you understand how to look at the page source without becoming overwhelmed:

1. HTML is structure and layout. You can’t manipulate anything until you place it on a page and give it a name or at least understand how to access via the DOM. HTML enables you to place an element on in a document.
2. CSS  is used to control how the HTML elements look and are positioned on the page
3. Understanding the DOM is understanding how the browser organizes the elements on the page, so you can get to them with Javascript and control them.
4. Javascript is the scripting language of the web (client-side). It is how you give some control of page content and behavior to your user. It is how you create dynamic interaction based on page events that are triggered by the user.