1. Textedit Application
2. Textedit Save As Html Editor

A simple text editor is all you need to learn HTML.

May 29, 2012 Today we are going to write and save our first CSS file. Let’s begin by opening a text editing program. If you are on a Microsoft Windows PC open the program named Notepad (hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard and press R, then type notepad and press enter). If you are using a Macintosh computer, launch the application named “TextEdit” (which can be found in your Apps folder). Tristan, First you'll need to click 'Format' and choose 'Make Plain Text'. HTML files (and CSS and PHP and any other code you write here) will need to be in plain text to avoid extra markup. Once you've done that, when you go to Save, you should see a drop down box that says 'Plain Text Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8)'.

Learn HTML Using Notepad or TextEdit

Web pages can be created and modified by using professional HTML editors.

However, for learning HTML we recommend a simple text editor like Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac).

We believe in that using a simple text editor is a good way to learn HTML.

Follow the steps below to create your first web page with Notepad or TextEdit.

Step 1: Open Notepad (PC)

Windows 8 or later:

Open the Start Screen (the window symbol at the bottom left on your screen). Type Notepad.

Windows 7 or earlier:

Open Start > Programs >Accessories >Notepad

Step 1: Open TextEdit (Mac)

Open Finder > Applications > TextEdit

Also change some preferences to get the application to save files correctly.In Preferences > Format > choose 'Plain Text'

Then under 'Open and Save', check the box that says 'Display HTML files as HTML code instead of formatted text'.

Then open a new document to place the code.

Step 2: Write Some HTML

Write or copy the following HTML code into Notepad:

Step 3: Save the HTML Page

Save the file on your computer. Select File > Save as in the Notepad menu.

Name the file 'index.htm' and set the encoding to UTF-8 (which is the preferred encoding for HTML files).

Tip: You can use either .htm or .html as file extension. There is no difference, it is up to you.

Step 4: View the HTML Page in Your Browser

Open the saved HTML file in your favorite browser (double click on the file, or right-click - and choose 'Open with').

The result will look much like this:

W3Schools Online Editor - 'Try it Yourself'

With our free online editor, you can edit the HTML code and view the result in your browser.

It is the perfect tool when you want to test code fast. It also has color coding and the ability to save and share code with others:

Example

Textedit Application

Click on the 'Try it Yourself' button to see how it works.

W3Schools Spaces

If you want to create your own website and host your .html files, try our free website builder, called W3schools Spaces:

Today we are going to write and save our first CSS file. Let’s begin by opening a text editing program. If you are on a Microsoft Windows PC open the program named Notepad (hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard and press R, then type notepad and press enter). If you are using a Macintosh computer, launch the application named “TextEdit” (which can be found in your Apps folder).

Let’s Write Our First Bit of CSS

Let’s imagine we have a simple web page with a heading, and we want the heading to be orange and center aligned. Add the following code into your new blank text document:

Hopefully, you remember this code from our previous lesson. The task for today is to save our CSS file and link it to an HTML page.

Step 1: Saving The CSS File

Create a new folder on your desktop (or another location you prefer) and name it CSS-Test. Now, back in your text editing program save your document as “style.css”.

Linking CSS File to an HTML Page

Our new CSS file is worthless if we don’t apply it to a web page. Let’s create a quick HTML page for this lesson. Create a new blank file in Notepad (or TextEdit) and add the following code:

If you’ve read my first few HTML Lessons, then this code is at least somewhat familiar. I’ll explain it as the lesson continues; for now save this document in our “CSS-Test” folder and name it “index.htm”.

Linking the Two Files Together

Textedit Save As Html Editor

We still need to tell the web browser to load our “style.css” file when the “index.htm” page is viewed. Add the following code to “index.htm” directly above our </head> closing tag:

This line of code tells our browser that we want to link a Style Sheet, that it’s located in the same folder as our HTML page, and that it’s named “style.css”.

Now, when you view “index.htm” page in a web browser you should see a centered, orange heading:

Let’s Style Those Two Boxes

If you look at the code of our HTML page, you’ll see two <div> elements. We added an HTML attribute of “id” for these two elements and assigned them values of “box-one” and “box-two.” We can use an element’s “id” to select and style it with CSS. For example, let’s make the first box gray, and the second box yellow. Add the following code to your CSS file, directly below our original <h1> rule:

When an element has an “id” we can access it with a CSS selector by placing a pound sign (#) in front of it’s id value. So to select the first <div> element we simply type “#box-one” and then begin our CSS Rule.

Our New Fancy Boxes

When you save your CSS file and refresh our HTML page in a web browser you should see something very similar to this:

Yay For Style

It may not be beautiful, but we styled our first HTML page with CSS! Let’s recap your CSS knowledge so far. You know:

• The basic syntax of CSS (covered in our previous lesson)
• How to link a CSS file to an HTML page
• How to select certain HTML elements and style them

In our next lesson we’ll continue learning about CSS Selectors and the different ways to target specific elements with your CSS.

If you prefer to watch video lessons instead of reading written lessons check out my 8 hour video course and join 4,000+ others who have learned pro-level HTML, CSS, and responsive design.