How to Install Google Fonts to the CSS File

Would you like access to hundreds of fonts for your website? Then you need to learn how to use Google Fonts! Most web developers use Google Fonts on their websites. The article describes in detail how to choose and install Google Fonts into your CSS file. How To Steps for Google Font Installation How to…

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How to Use the WordPress Customizer

In this lesson in our WordPress series we will learn how to use the WordPress Customizer. Customize is where you design the website including the header, footer, and overall design decisions.  In addition, you use Customize to create menus for the website.  Think of Customize as where you work on everything except for the <main>…

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Finding Freelance Website Gigs

Are you getting started as a web developer and ready to find a freelancing gig? This article will help you find clients for freelance website gigs. You can add to your experience and portfolio as a web developer through freelancing while you are a student and supplementing your income after you start a career job.…

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How WordPress Works

If you only know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, it can be challenging to wrap your head around how WordPress works. With HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you create and publish files to a hosting server. With WordPress, the website content and settings are not stored in the website files. Instead, the content is stored in database tables. In this article we’ll explain what the database tables are and how the website files interact with them.

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Why are most websites made with WordPress?

As of this writing, WordPress powers 43% of the World Wide Web. And, of websites using a content management system, market share is 64%. Why are so many websites made with WordPress? This article explains why WordPress dominates the web development marketplace. A strong understanding of WordPress is critical for students of web development.

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The Magic of Publishing Your Website

Linking the Domain Name and Hosting Plan with DNS Does publishing a website really take magic? To publish a website you need to register a domain name from a domain name registrar, and you need to purchase a website hosting plan. Once you have the domain name and hosting connected with the DNS, then you…

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Don’t Make Me Think Discussion Questions

In the Web Design course I teach at Saint Paul College we read Don’t Make Me Think, Revised (3rd Edition)*  by Steve Krug. I searched the Internet for existing study questions and failed to find them. Hence, I will be writing my own discussion questions. I hope you find these discussion questions useful. If you…

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Getting Started on a New Web Design

When I am working on a new website, it sometimes can be hard to know how to get started on the design. I start by looking at competitor websites and I ask my clients to send me links to websites that they like. While not everything is done exactly in the order below, the process…

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Ten Simple Design Rules for Web Design

Young Web Designer Working on Her Laptop

In my Web Fundamentals course (CSCI1450 at Saint Paul College), I primarily teach college students how to use HTML, CSS, and some common frameworks to make websites. The focus is less on design and more on learning how to code. Even so, I created this list of simple design rules for web design so they…

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How to Center Web Page Elements Horizontally

Centering HTML elements on a web page is a bit tricky. How you center elements depends on the type of element on the web page. There are three different ways to horizontally center elements on the web page, depending on what you want to center. Is the element you want to center: A text element;…

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