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– Ponderings & code by Drew McLellan –

– Live from The Internets since 2003 –

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HTML and Web Standards Training

12 January 2009

Since we began running our CSS beginners course last year, we’ve had a number of requests for an entry-level course on using HTML and web standards principals in general. It makes sense, as a working knowledge of basic HTML is really needed to take full advantage of the instruction we offer on CSS. So we’ve put one together.

It’s a one-day course in which we’ll be covering all the basics of HTML 4, XHTML and briefly looking forward at the upcoming HTML 5. We’ll cover the principals of semantic markup, the separation of content, structure and presentation, the fundamentals of progressive enhancement and even microformats. Delegates will discover the impact of markup on SEO and Accessibility, and learn how best to work in order to benefit both.

It’s actually a beginners course I’ve always wanted to see: Learn How to Do It Properly From the Start. If you’re not the sort of person who learns well from The School of View Source, then I think this would be a day well spent. I think it’s going to be perfect for those who have to use HTML as part of their job (like site managers, content editors or even clients!) as well as those wanting to take some initial steps into building for the web.

We’ve scheduled the first one back to back with our CSS beginners course next month, and are offering a good discount to those who book on both days.

Update: we’ve got a final few places left if you’re quick.

- Drew McLellan

Comments

  1. § Gerard Keohane:

    One day course for all that? Seems a trifle ambitious… I totally agree on the approach though – it’s definitely the way to learn in a ‘sustainable’ fashion. And the outline seems very thorough and hits all the right spots, and with a 5 to 1, student to teacher, ratio there’s certainly a better chance of focusing on work rather than getting stuck in misunderstood points etc…

    I’d love to read your thoughts on how it goes (after you’ve taught the course) and whether it is possible to fit so much into a one-day course…

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About Drew McLellan

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Drew McLellan (@drewm) has been hacking on the web since around 1996 following an unfortunate incident with a margarine tub. Since then he’s spread himself between both front- and back-end development projects, and now is Director and Senior Web Developer at edgeofmyseat.com in Maidenhead, UK (GEO: 51.5217, -0.7177). Prior to this, Drew was a Web Developer for Yahoo!, and before that primarily worked as a technical lead within design and branding agencies for clients such as Nissan, Goodyear Dunlop, Siemens/Bosch, Cadburys, ICI Dulux and Virgin.net. Somewhere along the way, Drew managed to get himself embroiled with Dreamweaver and was made an early Macromedia Evangelist for that product. This lead to book deals, public appearances, fame, glory, and his eventual downfall.

Picking himself up again, Drew is now a strong advocate for best practises, and stood as Group Lead for The Web Standards Project 2006-08. He has had articles published by A List Apart, Adobe, and O’Reilly Media’s XML.com, mostly due to mistaken identity. Drew is a proponent of the lower-case semantic web, and is currently expending energies in the direction of the microformats movement, with particular interests in making parsers an off-the-shelf commodity and developing simple UI conventions. He writes here at all in the head and, with a little help from his friends, at 24 ways.