We’re taking a step toward “real” programming today.

I used something called Atom to create my code for these lessons. It is being discontinued, so you’ll have to use something else. The most common one I know of is called Visual Studio Code. Search that and download the text editor. You can use another; it’s not important which one since any of them will be different from what I used. If I mention Atom, know that I am referring to your code text editor.

We’ve been using Notepad or another default text editor on your computer. These code text editors are made for coding. It has some helps built right in.

Once you have it open on your computer, go to File and Add Project Folder. Choose the firstProject folder from your Projects directory. Then open your index.html file. It should be all pretty and color-coded. If you click on one tag, it will be underlined in blue. The opening and closing tags will be both underlined. It can show you where a tag ends. This will be helpful when there is more stuff between your tags!

Go to File and choose New File. If you start to type, it will just be gray. You have to save it as an HTML file to get the color coding.

Save it as test.html or something like that in your Projects folder (directory) and then type html (without the <>) and hit the Tab key on your keyboard. It fills in some basic code in your HTML file to get you started.

You can watch the video of this all happening.