smart computer use?

I run into a lot of situations where clients/colleagues/etc. need to know just enough about HTML to use a content management system or to do simple markup for simple web-based tasks.

For these people, they don’t need (or want) to know a ton of HTML and all the intricacies that go along with delving into web site development with HTML/CSS. They just need to be able to bold text, make headings, make lists and other small things. Usually their content management system or whatever other software they are using will take care of the rest of the formatting for them.

But, they do need to know some basics. And they need a reference for the basics.

I like to point them to this: http://werbach.com/barebones/barebones.html

This is a simple guide that outlines the HTML elements. It has the tags and stuff that I show them, so it’s there if they need reference, plus they can dig in and try to use some other HTML tags if needed.

I like this particular guide because it doesn’t go into how to implement a lot of the more advanced tag usage. For that reason, people that know a few HTML basics and need a reference will find it very accessible and non-overwhelming. It’s just a tag reference, so they can find what they can’t remember and not get too distracted by everything else.