Do I need to download HTML and CSS?

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:



My First Heading

My first paragraph.


Do I need to download HTML and CSS?



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).

Do I need to download HTML and CSS?

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:

Do I need to download HTML and CSS?


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




Page Title

This is a Heading

This is a paragraph.


Try it Yourself »

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


W3Schools Spaces

If you want to create your own website and save your code online, try our website builder, called W3schools Spaces:

In Installing basic software, we show you what tools you need to do simple web development and how to install them properly.

In this article, we'll set you up with the bare minimum — a text editor and some modern web browsers.

You probably already have a basic text editor on your computer. By default Windows includes Notepad and macOS comes with TextEdit. Linux distros vary; the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS release comes with GNOME Text Editor by default.

For web development, you can probably do better than Notepad or TextEdit. We recommend starting with Visual Studio Code, which is a free editor, that offers live previews and code hints.

For now, we'll install a couple of desktop web browsers to test our code in. Choose your operating system below and click the relevant links to download installers for your favorite browsers:

  • Linux: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Brave.
  • Windows: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge, Brave (Windows 10 comes with Edge by default; otherwise, you should install an alternative browser).
  • macOS: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Brave (macOS and iOS come with Safari by default).

Before going on, you should install at least two of these browsers and have them ready for testing.

Some examples will need to be run by a web server to work successfully. You can find out how to do this in How do you set up a local testing server?

The following looks like a scary list, but fortunately, you can get started in web development without knowing anything about most of these.

So, you’ve decided to join the web designer’s happy gang? That’s wonderful. You’re probably asking, “What software do I need to get before I can start?” And the answer? Probably nothing.

This page was last updated on 2012-08-21



The basic stuff

Yep, that’s right. You already have everything you need to create a competent website. All computers will come with some of the basic tools necessary to write HTML and CSS, and to edit images. First of all, you’ll need a text editor to write your HTML and CSS files. If you have a PC and use Windows, you can use Notepad, the most basic text editor on your computer. If you have a Mac with OS X, you can use TextEdit. You know how to get them right?

On a PC, open Start > Programs > Accessories > NotePad
On a Mac, open Finder > Applications > TextEdit

sourcetip: Mac users going the TextEdit route will need to change some preferences to get the application to save files correctly. In the Preferences, under “Format”, choose “Plain Text”. Then under “Open and Save”, tick the box that says “Ignore rich text commands in HTML files”.

Other than that, you need an Internet , which you have already because you’re reading this in one. Bear in mind however, that it is probably best to have a copy of each of the popular browsers installed on your system. You’ll probably settle on one to use as your own primary browser, but it’s very helpful to have the others as you can check how your site looks in each browser (since sometimes pages will look different) and make sure that it works, which is important.

Image editing is where it gets tricky. Most people won’t have an image editor that can save in the Internet’s two graphics formats. Microsoft Paint, which comes with Windows, can save in both .gif and .jpg format, though it isn’t really much of an editor to begin with. Your best bet would be to get a 30 day trial of something like Photoshop. You could also use » GIMP, a free Photoshop-like image editor, if you’re able to put up with it.

Do I have other options?

But of course. It all depends on what you have installed on your computer. Common programs that you may have are things like Microsoft FrontPage, FrontPage Express or Microsoft Word. These editors are editors, i.e. you are watching your page as you design it. However, these three programs generate truly horrible HTML code and I strongly advise against using them, as the code is messy and works badly in many browsers.

My advice is simple: start with a text editor. It might be a harder slog for the first week or so, but you will learn much more, and have a much clearer understanding of your code. Taking the easy option with FrontPage or whatever will leave you outputting sloppy HTML and not learning much about how to design and structure pages. Even worse, once you encounter a bug in a layout that your editor can’t fix automatically, you won’t be able to go into the code and fix it yourself.

Once you’ve used NotePad or similar for a while and are comfortable with your knowledge of HTML you can allow yourself to use editors that do more of the hard work for you. Assisted text editors like Notepad2 (PC) or TextMate (Mac) are great for saving you time once you know exactly what you’re doing. Try to stay away as much as possible from graphical (WYSIWYG) editors, as unless you need to design a site very quickly, a hand-coded page will always be superior to an automatically generated one. Care enough to spend time working on your site.

In a perfect World...

In a perfect world we would all have a couple of thousand to splash out on fancy software to get the best results with the minimum effort. In some areas, you get what you pay for in software, but there are a lot of very nice programs you can get now that are cheap or even free.

That said, if you feel that you would benefit from a more advanced html editor, you can read our own software reviews page to get some download information.

What do I use?

My own software selection reads thusly. When I’m using Windows, I use these programs:

  • Notepad++: a powerful text editor for the PC. Free and open source.
  • PaintShop Pro: a really excellent image editor. It’s shareware, so you’ll need to pay for it after a while. You also get Animation Shop, to make GIF animations.
  • FileZilla: once your site is built, you need to FTP it onto the Internet. FileZilla is a free piece of software for this.

When I’m using my Mac, I use:

  • TextMate is a terrific text editor which can do syntax highlighting for dozens of common markup and programming languages.
  • Transmit is my favourite FTP program on the Mac.

There’s lots of great open source software for the Mac. So you see, with a bit of downloading you can have built up a collection of great authoring software, mostly for free. Here’s some full reviews of these programs.

How to install HTML and CSS?

HTML & CSS Environment Setup (Windows).
The Text Editor. The two most essential tools for developing a website are a text editor and a browser. ... .
Browser Setup. Next, let's set up the browser. ... .
Your Working Folder. From now on, let's make a local website by VSCode and Chrome. ... .
Creating an HTML File. ... .
Creating a CSS File..

Do we have to download CSS?

css have to be downloaded and parsed before Paragraph 1 is rendered.." -- In fact the css doesn't need to be downloaded at all, (if you don't want your content to be styled)!! If you do want your content to be styled, make sure that your css is downloaded before your content, to avoid the FOUC.

Do I need to download anything for HTML?

No you are not required to download anything to code html css and Javascript. You can use notepad and code there but downloading an IDE would be best because it can help you in your coding like checking for syntax and other stuff that will make the job easier. Try notepad++, sublime text 3, brackets or atom.

How do I download HTML and CSS from a website?

Open up the webpage and click File-> Save Page As... and from that prompt select "Web Page, Complete" . Once you've saved this page this downloads a complete version of the html, javascript, css files and images that are referenced in the HTML.