How TO — Make a Website
Learn how to create a responsive website that will work on all devices, PC, laptop, tablet, and phone.
Create a Website from Scratch
A «Layout Draft»
It can be wise to draw a layout draft of the page design before creating a website:
Navigation bar
Side Content
Main Content
Footer
First Step — Basic HTML Page
HTML is the standard markup language for creating websites and CSS is the language that describes the style of an HTML document. We will combine HTML and CSS to create a basic web page.
Example
My Website
A website created by me.
Example Explained
- The declaration defines this document to be HTML5
- The element is the root element of an HTML page
- The element contains meta information about the document
- The element specifies a title for the document
- The element should define the character set to be UTF-8
- The element with name=»viewport» makes the website look good on all devices and screen resolutions
- The element contains the styles for the website (layout/design)
- The element contains the visible page content
- The element defines a large heading
- The
element defines a paragraph
Creating Page Content
Inside the element of our website, we will use our «Layout Draft» and create:
- A header
- A navigation bar
- Main content
- Side content
- A footer
Header
A header is usually located at the top of the website (or right below a top navigation menu). It often contains a logo or the website name:
My Website
A website created by me.
Then we use CSS to style the header:
.header <
padding: 80px; /* some padding */
text-align: center; /* center the text */
background: #1abc9c; /* green background */
color: white; /* white text color */
>
/* Increase the font size of the element */
.header h1 font-size: 40px;
>
Navigation Bar
A navigation bar contains a list of links to help visitors navigating through your website:
Use CSS to style the navigation bar:
/* Style the top navigation bar */
.navbar overflow: hidden; /* Hide overflow */
background-color: #333; /* Dark background color */
>
/* Style the navigation bar links */
.navbar a float: left; /* Make sure that the links stay side-by-side */
display: block; /* Change the display to block, for responsive reasons (see below) */
color: white; /* White text color */
text-align: center; /* Center the text */
padding: 14px 20px; /* Add some padding */
text-decoration: none; /* Remove underline */
>
/* Right-aligned link */
.navbar a.right float: right; /* Float a link to the right */
>
/* Change color on hover/mouse-over */
.navbar a:hover background-color: #ddd; /* Grey background color */
color: black; /* Black text color */
>
Content
Create a 2-column layout, divided into a «side content» and a «main content».
We use CSS Flexbox to handle the layout:
/* Ensure proper sizing */
* box-sizing: border-box;
>
/* Column container */
.row <
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
>
/* Create two unequal columns that sits next to each other */
/* Sidebar/left column */
.side flex: 30%; /* Set the width of the sidebar */
background-color: #f1f1f1; /* Grey background color */
padding: 20px; /* Some padding */
>
/* Main column */
.main <
flex: 70%; /* Set the width of the main content */
background-color: white; /* White background color */
padding: 20px; /* Some padding */
>
Then add media queries to make the layout responsive. This will make sure that your website looks good on all devices (desktops, laptops, tablets and phones). Resize the browser window to see the result.
/* Responsive layout — when the screen is less than 700px wide, make the two columns stack on top of each other instead of next to each other */
@media screen and (max-width: 700px) .row <
flex-direction: column;
>
>
/* Responsive layout — when the screen is less than 400px wide, make the navigation links stack on top of each other instead of next to each other */
@media screen and (max-width: 400px) .navbar a float: none;
width: 100%;
>
>
Tip: To create a different kind of layout, just change the flex width (but make sure that it adds up to 100%).
Tip: Do you wonder how the @media rule works? Read more about it in our CSS Media Queries chapter.
Tip: To learn more about the Flexible Box Layout Module, read our CSS Flexbox chapter.
What is box-sizing?
You can easily create three floating boxes side by side. However, when you add something that enlarges the width of each box (e.g. padding or borders), the box will break. The box-sizing property allows us to include the padding and border in the box’s total width (and height), making sure that the padding stays inside of the box and that it does not break.
You can read more about the box-sizing property in our CSS Box Sizing Tutorial.
Footer
At last, we will add a footer.
Footer
.footer <
padding: 20px; /* Some padding */
text-align: center; /* Center text*/
background: #ddd; /* Grey background */
>
Congratulations! You have built a responsive website from scratch.
W3Schools Spaces
If you want to create your own website and host your .html files, try our website builder, called W3schools Spaces: