There are many, many website and web platforms that promise ease of use and no coding needed but, it’s is always beneficial to have a basic knowledge.
Think about the times you’re building a page on a drag and drop website platform and your font size looks off or your text isn’t giving you enough spacing between. There’s a way to see the problem quickly and it’s through your coding.
We've pulled together some coding hacks that marketers can start to use below.
Finding your source code
The first step to looking at coding is to know where to find it. Behind every WYSIWYG editor is a source code and it often looks like this <> on your text dashboard. Once you know how to find your source code you can start identifying where in the code you are running into problems etc.
You can also look at the source code of a website using Developer Tools in your web browser. The term may change based on the browser you are using.
The coding languages to know
HTML and CSS are going to be the main driving coding languages that you should have a grasp over. However, you should also know that Javascript is also a main code used in these non-coding websites. Code is found in both your source code and in styling sheets and there are a number of components of code that are similar across the different languages. Components like brackets <> and properties are important part of starting to be able to read code. For an example, you'll learn that href sets up a link and that <ul> starts a list and that setting a specific requires a =.
Start with HTML
You will get the most use out of understanding HTML and really it is one of the easiest coding languages to pick up. Understanding HTML coding will help you make those quick changes like font size, weight, line spacing and image resizing.
There are many websites and forums on the web that you can use to help you to start learning code. It is also helpful to look at the source code on your current website pages to start identifying how code structures.
When you can use your coding hacks you will save time on your website projects and also relieve some of the reliance you have on your developers. It does take time to learn and experimentation but you will be thankful you took that time.
