Code-Along: An About Me Website

In this activity, use HTML and CSS to create a website about yourself!

Note: HTML ignores whitespace, so don't worry about extra lines or indentations between text!

Getting Started

1. Click here to open the starter project
2. Open the preview pane
   

That's it! You should be all set, and ready to code.

First Challenge: Looking at the HTML

Make sure the index.html file is selected on the left to view the HTML code. Notice how the code in the HTML creates the text on the website. Everything in HTML goes between tags, which tell the website what type of element to display.

The first thing to do is update the header text with your name! For example, if my name were Sokka, I could change the header so that it said Sokka's Website.

Update the code in the HTML section, between the <h1> and </h1> tags. It should look something like this:

<h1>Sokka's Website</h1>

When you make a change, the preview should update automatically. If you see your name - that's it! You're officially a web developer!

Adding a Welcome Paragraph

Now it's time to add a totally new element. The paragraph element is used to display normal text on a webpage. Its tags are <p> and </p>, with text content between.

1. Make a new line underneath the <h1></h1>
2. Add a <p> opening tag on the new line
3. Enter some text that will be displayed
4. At the end of the line, add a </p> to close the paragraph element
5. Run the code, and verify that the message appears on the website!

The code should look something like this:

<p>Hi, I'm me. Welcome to my website!</p>

Adding a List of Hobbies

Next, it's time to add some information about yourself. Think of some hobbies or activities you enjoy, and then follow the instructions to list them on your website!

1. Add an <h2></h2> saying "My Hobbies" beneath the <p></p> element
   • This will display a slightly smaller header than h1
2. On the next line, add a <ul> opening tag, and make a new indented line
   • Can you guess what the ul element will be? An unordered list!
3. Under the <ul>, add an <li></li> with one of your hobbies as the content
   • Can you guess what the li element will be? A list item!
4. Add at least one more li element on the next line
5. At the end of the list, add a </ul> to complete the element
6. Run the code, and verify that the list appears on the website!

The code should look something like this:

<h2>My Hobbies</h2>
<ul>
    <li>Reading</li>
    <li>Writing</li>
    <li>Petting Cats</li>
</ul>

Adding a Cool Image

This is looking rad, but what's missing? Almost every website has at least one image, and yours can too!

Finding an Image

The first thing to do is find an image. Images on websites have URLs which tell the browser where to look for them. Follow the instructions below to find the URL (or address) of an image, and copy it.

1. Open a new browser tab and go to Google Images
2. Search for something appropriate (such as "cats")
3. Click on the image you would like to use
4. When it appears, right click and select "Copy image address"
   • Do not copy the image itself, that will not work!

Now, the image address is stored on the clipboard. It will be possible to paste it into your website after adding some HTML.

Creating the Image Element

Now that you have the image, it's time to add it to your website.

1. Make a new line under the </ul>
2. Add another <h2> saying "A Cool Image"
3. Make a new line under that
4. Add a new element: <img >
5. After the img, before the >, type in src=""
6. Between the double quotes, paste in the image URL
7. Run the code, and verify that your image appears on the website!

The code should look something like this:

<h2>A Cool Image</h2>
<img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1482066490729-6f26115b60dc?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&w=1000&q=80">

Changing the Background Color with CSS

Now the content of the page is looking pretty good, but it's not very stylish. One way to make the website look more fun and exciting is to use CSS! HTML is like the skeleton of a webpage, just the structure, and CSS is like the clothes that it wears, giving it style.

On the left side of the page, open the style.css file by clicking on it.

Take a look at the code so far. Try to figure out how to change the background color from white to another color, like pink!

The code should look something like this:

* {
  background: pink;
}

Changing More with CSS

CSS can change almost anything on a website. For this activity, update the text color, size, and font! All changes should take place in the style.css file.

Updating the Text Color

Follow these instructions to change the text color on your website.

1. Find the line where the background color is set
2. Make a new line underneath that line (above the })
3. Type in color, followed by a colon (:)
4. Make a space, and type in a new color (like red) followed by a semi-colon (;)

Run the code, and verify that the text color changes!

Note that every CSS property follows the same structure: property name, colon, property value, semi-colon.

Updating Font and Size

Next, update the font and size of the text by following the instructions below.

1. Make a new line under the color line (still above })
2. Set a new property font-family to a value of consolas
   • property name, colon, property value, semi-colon
3. Make another new line, still above }
4. Set another new property font-size to a value of 18px
   • property name, colon, property value, semi-colon
   • Can you guess what px means? Pixels!

Run the code, and verify that the text changes font and size! Feel free to try changing the numbers or the font to see what works.

The code should look something like this:

* {
  background: pink;
  color: red;
  font-family: consolas;
  font-size: 18px;
}

Resizing the Image

Sometimes, images from online are way too big. It is possible to resize them using CSS!

Add this code to the style.css file (at the bottom):

img {
  height: 200px;
}

That should resize the image to a more appropriate height. Feel free to try changing the number to see what works.

Using Custom Colors

Some basic colors are built into the web (like pink and red), but it is also possible to use custom colors! Each color can be represented as a hexidecimal color code, which is a hashtag (#) followed by six alphanumeric characters. The easiest way to find a specific color is to use a color picker, like Google's color picker! Follow the steps below to update the colors on the website.

1. Open a new tab
2. Search for "color picker" on Google
3. Select a color
4. Copy the HEX code
   • 
5. Go to the style.css file
6. Paste the hex code where a color was
7. Refresh the preview, and verify that the new color appears on the website!
8. Repeat the steps above to change the color of the text to another custom color

The CSS code should look something like this:

* {
  background: #ffbdbd;
  color: #bf3636;
  font-family: consolas;
  font-size: 18px;
}

Finishing Up

Hopefully your website is looking good by now! It should look something like this:

Congratulations, you've successfully built your own website!

Customization

If there is time remaining, there are a lot of additional updates to be made!

Click here to see what can be customized.