With the help of CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or TextPattern almost anyone, with little to no HTML or CSS knowledge can have a website up and running in a matter of minutes. However, if you want to be able to format web pages, then learning at least some of the basic HTML tags and being able to use different CSS elements such as colors, layouts, or fonts, then a quick crash course on HTML and CSS would be beneficial.

What are the best HTML and CSS resources for beginners? Listed below are some of the websites that have well-written tutorials, articles, and news that you might find useful:

W3Schools

One of the places where you can find both HTML and CSS tutorials that are detailed, thorough, and supported by easy to understand examples. The HTML part is split into basic, advanced, examples, and references. The basic section comes with twenty chapters on its own at the time of this writing. Each chapter is supported by code which you can try immediately by clicking on a button that opens a new browser window and this will help you understand the various HTML elements, their attributes, styles, and formatting. The CSS tutorials are also conveniently split into seven sections and even includes a quiz and practical examples.

HTML Dog

Another great recourse with beginner, intermediate, and advanced HTML and CSS tutorials. When opening the beginner’s tutorials the menu expands and allows the reader to jump to any of the sections that they are interested in. The tutorials themselves are written in a simple and clear manner and every new step is explained with the help of practical examples. The CSS tutorials are split into seven chapters and introduce the various CSS properties, values, and selectors, as well as markings, padding, and borders. As soon as you master the basics, you can move to the next level and start learning about nesting, grouping, pseudo classes, and cover some of the more advanced topics.

HTML Goodies

One of the oldest HTML websites and one that has undoubtedly helped millions to learn the basics of the hypertext markup language. The design has changed throughout the years and as it stands today, the website is a tad busier than most similar websites, yet still not that difficult to navigate. Links to the HTML tutorials can be found on the left-hand menu and are split into twelve sections, each one with a number of subsections as well. The main strength of this website comes from the well written tutorials and that is what makes it a great recourse for beginners.

CSS Basics

If you want to get your feet wet and learn more about Cascading Style Sheets, then head over to http://www.cssbasics.com/. There are eighteen chapters that you can read online, print out, or download and save to your hard drive. The website is extremely easy to navigate, all the chapters are short, well presented, and loaded with numerous examples that will help you understand how each element works.

HTML.net

Another excellent resource with HTML and CSS tutorials that start with an introduction to HTML and CSS, explain how they work and how to use them. The tutorials are accompanied by by graphics and images that  make learning the basics easier.

The resources listed above will help you learn more about HTML and CSS and show you how to build pages that are better designed, easier to navigate, and quicker to load. Once you cover the basics you can move to more advanced topics and learn more about new elements in HTML5 and CSS3 as well as become a better designer and webmaster.

What is your favorite HTML/CSS tutorial resource? Please share with us in the comments.