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Initially i had written something on  learning the basics of html  and this little information on html tables would also form a part of the whole in the html arena.  Creating and using tables is a very vital part in html and web designing in general. Tables can be used to structure a page which has now given way to CSS but table has always proved to be a handy tool in listing or structuring some contents in a webpage.  Now lets work you through a basic html table without beating around the bush.

I will simply write a syntax  and basic explaination for table and then you can sort the rest out by doing a little bit more research. Thats how people learn, if you want to learn coding then you must practice it.

Lets get down to business now. Please note the explainations by the side of the  table elements are just html comments and does not constitute part of the syntax.

To view this you can copy it and paste in a html page.

<table> <!-- the begining of the table tag or table opens -->

<tr><!-- you are telling the table to create a row -->

<td> Your table data here </td><!-- you are creating a data you want in a format -->

<td> Your table data here </td><!-- the same as above-->

</tr><!-- You are closing the row-->

<tr><!-- You are creating another row -->

<td> Your table data here </td><!-- you are creating a data you want in a format -->

<td> Your table data here </td><!-- the same as above-->

</tr><!-- You are closing the row-->

</table><!-- You are closing the table-->

There you go and your basic table is created, however in our next class, we will do more with the table. To view this table just copy and paste it in a html file and view in your browser. We assume that you must have known how to create a simple html page before creating a table in html.

Hope this helps

I was in a forum searching for an answer on how to find and edit a particular part of a CSS file  and i stumbled on the firebug . Simply put, this firefox addon is one of the best experiences for any web developer, all you need to do is simply download it from the site, then after it as been installed you would see the great difference it will make in your developing experience.

To access  firebug after it has been installed, please go to tools and then click on firebug to open up.

Practically just open up any webpage you would like to take a look at the codes, then go to tools and open up firebug, you would immediately see the a new window with options of viewing html,  css and DOM. If you are good with your browsing, it wouldnt be that hard to get around. It will even indicate what part of the site any code you see on the firebug is associated with. Please read an extract from firebug below.

"Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page..."

Hope this helps.

Thank you guys for all the support i have been recieving since i started putting up this blog, i have tried to make sure that i cover those little problems that might appear to be simple but at the same time poses a big problen for the everyday internet user and designer.

Remembear we covered the issue of installing a php script and setting up your site. Now there is a major problem that comes with editing the files associated with these scripts. Because of the fact that there are so many files associated with these scripts to edit, the best thing to do is to take it gradually.

Let us start by answering some common questions:

How do i identify a file that needs editing?

Normally , you do not go about editing a file that does not need editing, while browsing through pages, the page that needs editing would usually have it's page extension on the browser like home.html, home.asp, home.php, all you need to do is go to the server and look for this particular file, sometimes it could be a file that is inside a folder like admin/includes/home.php.

Please look for the files according to the folder where they belong and sometimes  you might find that some of the files had been integrated into the other, in this case you would have to read through the whole lines find the actual file to edit, now one of my best tricks is to use the source code view on your browser, this would normally present the whole files as one and then you would know where to find what you need. A good script would normally leave comments to aid the editing.

How do i know which code to edit ?

This is a little bit tough, in this case you must be atleast half or basically knowledgeable in the language used on the page you want to edit, i would advice you to back up the files you want to edit and then if there is any mistake, you can quickly replace the file to the status quo.

If you read through the codes very well, you should be able to know which lines you need to edit. lets say you want to change an image in a page from "Mike.jpg" to "Mike.gif", all you need to do is look around the codes in the page where you feel the image is, then change it accordingly. The same goes for the html or php codes, usually you see a similarity between what you are looking for and the codes in the page.

The best advice is to look for an expert in this field.

What is the relevance of the header and footer php files ?

Most php scripts like forum scripts, cms scripts etc  would normally have a file header.php, header.tpl , footer.php,footer.tpl. This provides users the ease to add and remove contents to the head and foot of the sites. As usuaul it is better to always backup the files before they edited.

These two files are very important because in a site, most people would like to change the looks of the head and the foot site regularly and this can be done through these two files.

What about the CSS files?

Coming soon!

Hello all, if you are wondering where to get a free ftp program (file transfer protocol) , please try FTP COMMANDER for a free download. Just when you have downloaded it , you will see the image below.

The left side links you to the files and folders on your computer , while the right side links to your web server. To transfer files you would need to open the files you want to transfer and then use the arrow pointing right or left to do that, that means you can transfer files/folders from  your computer to your  server or vice-versa.

To set up the server, please click on the top right menu "new server" to set up your server. This is basically your ftp details. Please see the image below for the server set up page:

Please click on the picture to enlarge the image more so you can see how to fill in your ftp details.

This system may vary in different ftp programs but the logic is basically the same.

Have Fun.

CORRECTION PLEASE: In the server configuration page, please  use your ftp username and ftp password in the provided spaces and not any username or any password as was mentioned in the image.