There are a variety of website platforms available for anyone that desires to start a website. The functionality has become more complex, but the methods for design have become much easier. Some designers still prefer manual coding, but there are lots of wizards and design applications that help users perfect their web pages. The main thing a web designer has to figure out is what platforms will best meet their needs. The following is a web design 101 overview of what’s available and how each of the platforms can be used.

XHTML stands for Extensible HyperText Markup Language. XHTML combines the best of XML and HTML to give users the ability to define tags for data. This is very important for websites that retrieve data from forms that are submitted through a website. Designers that implement this have the ability to use tags that correspond with the data that is sent. A website that requires a person’s age, for example, will be able to receive the data with a descriptive tag attached to this field. A web design 101 tip would be for designers to have a little background in the areas of XML and HTML to fully appreciate the combination of the two.

Some developers also use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for web design. CSS is often used in conjunction with developers that hard code through HTML. Web design 101 would not be comprehensive without mentioning one of the most important enhancements to HTML code since the beginning of web designs. CSS is a very important part of design structure. It’s almost essential for big websites that may have hundreds of links spread across a multitude of pages. Those that use the CSS platform can build applications that point to an external JavaScript file. The external file can contain code that standardizes things like font size, text alignment, and format tables within the page.

Developers with a strong HTML background can pick up on the format for CSS easily. There are also wizards for those that are interested in deploying the language to pages that require large amounts of formatting. The CSS platform accomplishes a lot of the work that goes with standard formatting. It’s much easier to set the font types and sizes, for example, through CSS. This saves the designer the time that it would take to insert the tags that are needed throughout the site for each page that becomes a part of the total website.

Both XHTML and CSS have been around for quite some time, but these are not – by far – the only platforms on the block. Web design 101 dives further into other methods that build upon the structure by exploring content management.

CMS software is slowing becoming a trend that is allowing designers to do even more with the sites that they design. The open source community has rendered content management systems (CMS) that appeal to those that have less experience in the area of programming. XHTML and CSS platforms have wizards, but many content applications are built for users that may have little or no experience.

It is common for designers to build websites and turn the project over to clients. It will then become the responsibility of the client to maintain the website. This may not be possible for clients that do not have experience in building pages that are hard coded. Software like Joomla and WordPress make the impossible possible with software that helps users manage the web content even if they have very little knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes.

Even designers that follow a web design 101 course description can benefit from CMS applications. It’s a great way for companies or individuals to minimize cost structures in the area of web development. Most of the content management software like Drupal and Joomla is free. There are other premium subscription based applications used for content management, but free applications like Joomla and Drupal are among the most popular.

Some of the content from these websites are actually stored as XML which leads back to the web design 101 diving gap reminder. This highlights differences between CMS and XHTML. Clients that use CMS, for example, do not have to directly tag the XML configurations because it is something that is already configured within the application. The open source community consists of developers that take care of much of the coding that goes into making these systems works.

The web design 101 resource that developers will depend heavy on is templates. Joomla is one of the most popular applications with a variety of templates that are available for editing. Other sites may also have code and scripts for CSS and PHP page building. This helps users implement new changes into their design environment very quickly.