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HTML Help: Change Animated Gif Looping

I want to get started right, is it better to learn to code by hand or better to use an HTML editor?
I'm an advocate of learning to code pages yourself, and I have more reasons than simply because that's the way I do it:

  1. HTML editors can add a lot of unnecessary code that can slow your site down. One client sends her organization's newsletter to me that's made with a popular software program. The last newsletter was 110k before I removed the unnecessary code, and 35k after I optimized it. That's three times smaller so it will download three times faster.
  2. Some editors use proprietary code, which means they have to be placed with hosts that offer the correct proprietary server extensions. That's not necessarily a problem, but it can be.
  3. Some editors don't always produce valid code. Software programmers do not have to pass a test proving their skills in web coding.
  4. Using an HTML editor limits what you can do to what the program can do, which is often not everything you'd like.
  5. Using these programs means you are tied into buying program upgrades as web development advances.
  6. When you find code bits you want to add, some of these programs won't let you add it. They will remove what you added or will change the code to what it "thinks" you meant, which breaks the code.
  7. When something goes wrong, as they sooner or later will, if you don't know code you won't know how to find and fix the problem.
  8. I believe it's better to learn to do something rather than to learn to click buttons. One expands your mind power, the other will turn you into a mindless zombie that drools on the keyboard and howls at a full moon.
  9. You can learn to make your pages exactly as you like, rather than settling for the closest an editor can make them to what you want.
  10. If you want a job in the web design field you will HAVE to know raw code. You may use an editor, but most employers will insist a candidate is more qualified than knowing how to click a few buttons.

You can always use an editor after you learn to code by hand. Some do that, and some do like me and keep coding by hand. It's really a personal preference, but there are many benefits to learning to code by hand before taking up an editor.

This concludes the

HTML Help about which is better, using an HTML Editor or coding web pages by hand.

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