Category: technology--the-internet · Clear
The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that allows people to exchange information, watch videos of cats and argue with strangers about things they don't understand.
It has been quite successful.
A website is a collection of pages and other content made available over the Internet.
At least, that's the sensible definition.
These days a website can also be:
- A shop
- A newspaper
- A booking system
- A customer portal
- A database
- A social network
- A game
- A weather forecast
- A way of convincing people to accept cookies they don't actually want
CMS stands for Content Management System.
It is software that allows website content to be created, edited and managed without having to manually alter the underlying website every time something changes.
In simple terms:
Without a CMS:
"Can you change this sentence on the website?"
With a CMS:
"Done."
You certainly can.
WordPress is hugely popular and works perfectly well for millions of websites.
This website uses a different approach because it was built specifically to provide the features required here, rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
Also, somebody had to build this thing.
A module is a self-contained piece of functionality that can be added to a page or site.
Examples might include:
- FAQs
- News
- Galleries
- Contact forms
- Events
- Downloads
- Testimonials
- Image sliders
Think of modules as building blocks. Put the right ones together and you can build a website without reinventing the wheel every time.
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language.
It describes the structure of content on a web page.
For example, it tells the browser:
"This is a heading."
"This is a paragraph."
"This is a list."
"Here is an image."
It doesn't make the tea.
That bit hasn't been standardised yet.
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.
It controls how HTML content looks.
For example:
| HTML says | CSS says |
|---|---|
| This is a heading | Make it large |
| This is a button | Make it look like a button |
| This is a paragraph | Give it some space |
| This is a link | Make it obvious that it's clickable |
HTML provides the structure. CSS provides the appearance.
Because your phone isn't a small desktop computer.
Screen sizes, operating systems, browsers and available space are all different.
A properly designed responsive website adapts to those differences rather than simply shrinking everything until the text is the size of an ant.
Responsive design means a website changes its layout depending on the size of the screen it is being viewed on.
For example:
Desktop
[ IMAGE ] [ TEXT ] [ TEXT ]
Phone
[ IMAGE ]
[ TEXT ]
[ TEXT ]
The content remains the same. The presentation changes.
Surprisingly often.
Try this:
- Save anything important.
- Close your applications.
- Turn the computer off.
- Wait a few seconds.
- Turn it back on.
- Try again.
If that doesn't work, you can confidently tell someone:
"I've tried turning it off and on again."
You are now officially qualified for first-line IT support.
Because software is never really finished.
Updates can contain:
- Security fixes
- Bug fixes
- Performance improvements
- New features
- Compatibility changes
Occasionally they also contain a completely new way of displaying a button that was perfectly fine where it was.
Possibly.
But probably not before someone has asked AI to make a website, spent three days trying to work out why the menu doesn't work, and then called a web developer.
AI is a very useful tool. It is not a substitute for understanding what you are actually trying to build.