Creating your website has become quite important in today’s time, especially if you want your business to do well and prosper. It isn’t easy to make your mark on the internet world.
The most basic and essential step to do so is to make your own website. Many people use WordPress or Static HTML as they are two of the most commonly used site creation websites.
More than often, the question that arises is whether or not one needs to know HTML or CSS to use WordPress. If you are having similar doubts, look no further.
This article will help you understand what HTML and WordPress are, thereby clearing all the doubts that you might have. So, let’s get started!
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What Exactly is WordPress?
If you know what Content Managing Systems (CMSs) are, then you already know what WordPress is. It is a Content Management System (CMS) that helps you in creating or modifying beautiful websites for your business.
For those who do not know what a Content Management System (CMS) is, it is a software/platform that makes website creation, modification and management easy. It ensures that your work becomes less sophisticated as you do not have to interact with the codes yourself. The software does the needful for you.
It is super-efficient and straightforward to use. The majority of the people on the internet make use of WordPress to create and run their sites. Even huge companies like MTV News and The New York Times use WordPress sites to save their time and effort and provide the best results.
There are two platforms for WordPress, and most often, people tend to get confused between the two. The first one is wordpress.org which is free and open source. You could download it and begin creating your WordPress website.
It has various plugins and themes that you could use for your WordPress site. You can also register for a hosting service by choosing any domain of your choice. On the other hand, wordpress.com is the self-hosted version.
No doubt it’s pretty easy to use, but there are limitations to it. You can’t manage the content on your WordPress site freely after a specific limit.
WordPress, in general, is an excellent platform, to begin with, if you do not have any technical skills. There’s barely any need for any coding required for using WordPress sites.
It is user-friendly, and you won’t face issues even if you are just a beginner. You can create or modify the content that appears on your page, customize the appearance of your WordPress site, its functionality and much more.
There are also various plugins and pre-made themes that you could use for your WordPress site. They help to increase the functionality of the WordPress site and even enhance its appearance.
Suppose you do not prefer the plugin options already provided to you through the WordPress plugin directory. In that case, you could look for other online stores that offer beautiful and excellent WordPress plugins.
Another significant aspect of WordPress is that it is a developing platform. It means that you could contribute to it and help it grow. You could also create your themes as well as plugins in WordPress.
These advantages are no doubt excellent, but still, the main question remains unanswered.
Is it Necessary to Know HTML or CSS to Use WordPress?
The basis of WordPress is MySQL and PHP. Now, this certainly doesn’t mean that you have to know all this to use it. It is designed to provide you with all the possible benefits without having to learn these scripting languages.
You can create your website and manage it with ease with WordPress. But if you want to opt for advanced customizations, having some knowledge of primary scripting languages like HTML, JavaScript and CSS is a must.
So, the need to know HTML/CSS depends entirely upon you and your requirements for your website. Learning any of these isn’t a piece of cake and might take some time, but with proper tutoring and dedication, you could soon grab hold of it.
Through HTML knowledge, you could customize and manage your WordPress website more efficiently. It acts as a plus point. So, it’s not a compulsion to know HTML or CSS for using WordPress, but it for sure is helpful in the long run.
What’s the Difference Between WordPress and HTML?
It is pretty common to get confused between the two because any website at the end comes out in an HTML format only. Whether you use Static HTML or WordPress, the basis of both is going to be a set of black and white codes.
The primary and only difference here is that in HTML, you or your website developer would sit and develop the html code for it, whereas in WordPress, the software itself will do the coding for you. Hence you do not need a WordPress developer to develop your WordPress website.
It uses a database and PHP to put together the codes in the HTML version of the site and collect appropriate content that later gets showcased on your site.
In simple words, HTML is where you develop the codes and then see the finished product on your site. On the other hand, WordPress is where these processes get done in the background, and you only see the surface level of the process.
About HTML
HTML is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. It consists of various tags that determine how your website would be seen. As any building requires a base for the construction, HTML is that base for the website.
It is mainly used together with JavaScript and CSS. CSS is used to develop the layout and structure of your site. It determines the design and style of the website, whereas JavaScript helps in programming.
Using HTML is super easy and fun once you have thoroughly learned it. Through it, you can control, edit and manage your website the same way how you would do it with WordPress or any other CMS.
Unlike WordPress software, you do not need backups ready for your sites because static HTML sites don’t regularly update. You would only need one when you make any changes.
Another great feature of static HTML is that you can control every tiniest thing on your website as you entirely create it. You could make the most minutes changes you want without having to wait for a set of programs or the software to do it for you.
As you might have seen in WordPress, it uses various themes and schemes plugins that are either predesigned or bought from online shops, but with HTML, you could create everything from scratch.
It is also much cheaper as it uses fewer resources. There is no need for PHP or MySQL here, as in WordPress.
The only drawback you get here is that it isn’t meant for beginners. For instance, if you are a newbie with a new business and are planning on starting a website for it, you certainly wouldn’t or couldn’t opt for static HTML website unless you have proper knowledge about it.
Therefore, you might settle in for other options such as WordPress. Also, if you still choose to opt for static HTML website, you might employ a developer who might charge you a lump sum amount of money which in turn will be of no benefit to you.
If you look at it from this perspective, static HTML website seems costlier than WordPress. So, it’s evident that any regular businessman would choose WordPress as creating websites here is way easier than HTML because the actual work gets handled by the software for you.
The Four Primary Languages to Learn to Use WordPress
As mentioned earlier, it isn’t a must to know HTML, CSS or other scripting languages to use WordPress, but it’s anytime better to have enough knowledge about them.
Here are four of the leading and primary languages you could learn to use WordPress to customize your website using WordPress’s advanced customization. WordPress uses these four as its coding language, i.e., HTML and CSS and declarative languages, i.e., JavaScript and PHP as the programming languages.
HTML
It isn’t a programming language, but instead, it’s like a vast text file containing many tags that determine how your website looks. These tags include the content that gets displayed on the site.
For instance, <p> contains a paragraph and the <title> includes the title of your site, which you would like to showcase in the search results. These elements could also be different attributes based on what your requirements for the site are.
HTML is fun to learn and use. It may seem a little complicated initially, but there should be no turning back once you begin with it.
CSS
CSS is an acronym for Cascading Style Sheets. The main task that it performs is to give style and an extraordinary appearance to your website. It is used in HTML itself by adding the attributes to the tags.
WordPress themes use CSS to make the site look more attractive to the viewers. Each WordPress theme has a style.css file which contains the style rules that set the format of the pages generated.
CSS is like a small part of HTML and is enjoyable to learn and use. There are many tutorials and articles available on the internet that could help you understand the basics to style your website.
In CSS, you can style various HTML elements. You could also define different sections that are stylable in CSS through the use of identifiers and classes.
If you have the premium plan in wordpress.com, you could use the CSS editor to make changes in the outlook of your website. It lets you add your CSS styles over the already existing default themes.
You could also add multiple CSS in WordPress by following few simple steps. One of the most common methods is to use the wp_enqueue_style() function to add various CSS files at once.
PHP
PHP is the primary programming language that WordPress uses to create and put together your webpage. WordPress runs through PHP. Therefore if you truly want to understand and utilize WordPress to its fullest, then PHP is something you should learn.
PHP is open-source, just like WordPress. It is used as a scripting language. For instance, if a user asks for a PHP code web page, the PHP module on the web server helps process it.
Then later, the pre-processor generates the HTML output, which gets displayed on the user’s screen. It was mainly developed to ease the process of building HTML pages.
In WordPress most PHP files contain a .php extension. The PHP pre-processor, as mentioned earlier, only processes the codes that are present in the PHP opening and closing tag.
Note that you do not need to know PHP to use WordPress. The majority of WordPress users do not know PHP and yet manage to have excellent and huge websites on the internet.
The only two reasons that might make you want to learn PHP are your interest in it or your wish to build WordPress themes, plugins, etc., through WordPress actions or filters.
JavaScript
The purpose behind developing JavaScript was to let you make extraordinary changes to your webpage without slowing down its speed. This programming language works on the user’s browser and not on the server.
For instance, if you are on a webpage and you click something on it. If that thing disappears or changes its looks, it is mostly JavaScript that does this for you.
Now, this certainly doesn’t mean that a WordPress theme cannot work without JavaScript. Many WordPress themes run perfectly without the use of JavaScript.
But in recent days, we get to see more and more WordPress themes with JavaScript because it helps make your website a lot more interactive and fun. Visitors tend to prefer responsive and attractive websites to the standard ones.
If you are a beginner who is just starting with WordPress, most people would advise you to learn HTML or CSS as they are considered the most important scripting languages in WordPress.
JavaScript doesn’t get that much attention, and the question arises whether or not one must learn it to access WordPress? It all depends on you whether or not you want to learn it.
But as a beginner, you must focus on learning HTML and CSS as your basics. Without having learned these, you cannot directly jump to JavaScript. Once you get your hold on HTML and CSS, your next step should be PHP.
In WordPress, you can develop a new WordPress theme or even a plugin without knowing JavaScript, but without PHP, that is nearly impossible. JavaScript is mainly meant for client-side interactivity, and it is now starting to get much more vital than it ever did.
Adding Javascript in WordPress is pretty easy and fun. There are three different methods you could use to add it. There are even tutorials available that could help you work with it with excellent efficiency.
So, if you are interested in learning JavaScript, you may surely go ahead, but ensure that you give first preference to HTML, CSS and PHP.
Conclusion
As you could see from the above article, it isn’t mandatory to learn HTML or CSS to use WordPress. It works great even if you have zero knowledge about these scripting languages. You can also check our article on Domain Names: What is WHOIS Privacy?
Do not over-burden yourself with such complicated languages, especially if you are a beginner. Learning HTML and CSS could indeed be helpful, but for now, even if you are unaware of it, it’s okay.
Most users opt for learning these languages in the later years once they are well settled with their website and need more ways to grow. Some users, on the other hand, employ people to advance or highly customize their websites. Either way, there’s no loss if you learn it.
So, All the best for your journey ahead!