Finding a Text Editor

I finished CSS in Codecademy yesterday. The fancy resume I created for my final project wasn’t working or looking right, and yet I passed the section with flying colors. After spending some time googling my issue with minimal results, it was time to return to YouTube to refine my understanding of CSS. There are many helpful video tutorials on CSS, but there’s a little problem I keep running into: TextEdit isn’t cutting the mustard. In every video I watch, the teacher is using one snazzy text editor after another. I keep seeing useful features like highlighting, auto closing tags and preview. Me want! Notepad++ sounded great, but I couldn’t find a version for mac, which is what I’m using. But, aha! I found a resource to help with that. Mikes Massive Mess recommends a wonderful program called WineBottler which converts a number of Windows applications to mac. One such program is Notepad++! Yay! Thanks Mike!! Done and did. Everything is working beautifully. Now I can finally use the free text editor I want and get back to business.

Learning to Code

My husband finally convinced me a few weeks ago that I might just make a great programmer. He pointed out that I’m EXTREMELY detail oriented, I like putting things in their proper place, and I have a lot of patience with tedious, nitty-gritty stuff. Plus, I’m an artist and love making everything look pretty.

I took his advice and started my journey with HTML and CSS. After watching some YouTube tutorials, I signed up for the free lessons on http://www.codecademy.com. It seemed like the perfect place for a total beginner like me to get an introduction to a variety of popular programming languages. 

Shockingly, it’s going great so far. I’m finished with the HTML section and am about half way through CSS. I got my 100 lesson badge today and had to share my joy. Not bad for a girly pretty princess like me. I’m taking exhaustive notes and am looking forward to seeing what else I can make. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I know I have just stumbled upon a universe of information and have a TON to learn and google. But, as of this moment, I’m enjoying my brain and am feeling very encouraged. 🙂