When I reviewed Xara Web Designer 9, I talked about the refusal of many users to learn even the basics of HTML and CSS technologies. I’m not suggesting you learn everything there is to know, but all designers should at least understand the basics. There just may be a time when you have to make even the most minor change to a Web page and this knowledge will come in handy. Keep in mind that the basics are really simple so this isn’t that hard.

Let’s start with HTML. It is nothing more than a markup language. In fact, that is part of the full name Hypertext Markup Language. You can create a Web page in any software that can edit text, including Notepad. Sure, other tools make it easier by color-coding or automating various functions.

The folks at w3schools.com have an excellent tutorial on HTML. It is free and you can step through it at whatever pace you desire. Please block off even an hour of time to go through some of these tutorials. If you give HTML a look, you will find it isn’t as scary as you are thinking right now.

HTML code is used for the content such as text and graphics. CSS is the formatting language and works much like styles in a word processor or page layout program. Again, the folks at w3schools.com have a free tutorial that walks you through CSS. I’ll also ask you to spend even an hour of time going through this information.

Maybe you can put your new HTML and CSS knowledge to work right away and maybe it is something you’ll only use sparingly. But as a designer, it is imperative that you have at least basic knowledge of both HTML and CSS.