BEST TIP for designing web pages -- free

Here's the best tip you'll ever get on web page design:

When browsing the web and coming upon good-looking pages, use "show source" or "view . . . source" on your browser menu, to examine the HTML of that page.

If you see some fancy feature on someone else's web page -- like color or tables for example, or a clever menu design -- and you want to do something similar on your own page, identify the feature that you want, and copy that part of the HTML source. Then paste it into an otherwise blank web page, and replace the original text with your own, leaving the HTML the same. (While a complete web page might be copyrighted, the basic HTML building-blocks are ingredients anyone can freely use.)

Save and open with your browser to see if you have captured the desired feature.

If it's there, congratulations! You've just learned how most web page designers learn the trade -- by studying others' work.

"Source" documents may look "Greek" to you at first, but you will soon learn to pick out the HTML tricks that you want to duplicate.

Chances are you omitted an essential part of the HTML when copying -- like picking up the <TABLE> tag at the beginning of a table but missing the </TABLE> tag at the end.

Try copying the entire source document of the original page, and then use your browser to look at the copied file on your disk. If the desired feature appears now, try deleting unwanted material from the original page a portion at a time, saving periodically and checking with the browser to be sure the desired feature is still intact. Eventually you will be left with the complete HTML for the desired feature.

Now you can play around with it to get different effects -- changing the HTML and looking with your browser to see what it would look like on the web.

Chances are it depends on graphics. Look for <IMG SRC="someimage.gif"> links on the page and check out the images used.

Although the original graphics may be copyrighted and unavailable for reproduction, the idea or technique employed may still be something that you can learn from in creating your own artwork that will accomplish the same purpose when used on your web page.

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