2023 Guide to Learning HTML and CSS in 1 Month

I made a lot of mistakes when learning HTML and CSS. I jumped right in trying to build things without having an understanding of the technologies I was using. When I finally took a step back and learned things the right way things started clicking for me. Here is exactly how I would learn HTML and CSS in 1 month if I could start over.

This lesson plan is designed for a person that is able to commit at least 1 hour a day to learning how to code.

If you’re ambitious and are willing to spend more than 1 hour a day learning, you could complete this in 2 weeks.

Week 1: Introduction to HTML

Day 1 — Intro to HTML:

• Read about HTML and its purpose
• Study the basic structure of an HTML document: doctype, html, head, body)
• Create and save your first HTML document using a text editor
• View the document in a web browser

Day 2 — HTML Tags

• Study the different types of HTML tags (opening, closing, and self-closing)
• Learn the most commonly used HTML tags: p, div, h1-h6, ul, ol, li, button
• Practice using HTML tags to structure text

Day 3 — HTML Attributes

• Study HTML attributes and how they are used in HTML tags
• Learn about the attributes id, class, and style for now

Day 4 — Hyperlinks

• Study hyperlinks and how they are used in HTML documents
• Learn about the target and href attributes
• Learn how to use relative and absolute URLs
• Practice creating hyperlinks to other web pages
• Practice creating phone and email links (tel:, mailto: )

Day 6 — Tables

• Study tables and how they are used in HTML documents
• Practice creating and formatting tables using HTML tags: table, tr, td, th, tbody, thead, tfoot

Day 7 — Semantic Tags

• Study semantic HTML and why it’s important for accessibility and SEO
• Learn about the most commonly used semantic HTML tags: header, nav, main, section, article, footer)
• Practice using semantic HTML tags to structure web pages

Week 2 — Introduction to CSS

Day 1 — Introduction to CSS

• Read about CSS and its purpose
• Study the syntax and structure of CSS rules
• Learn where you can put CSS styles: inline, internal stylesheet, external stylesheet
• Create a basic HTML file and link it to an external CSS file
• Add basic CSS styles to the HTML document: background-color, font-size, margin, padding

Day 2 — CSS selectors and properties

• Study CSS selectors and how they’re used to target HTML elements like class and id selectors
• Learn about CSS properties and their values
• Practice using CSS selectors and properties to style HTML elements

Day 3 — Box Model and Layout

• Study the box model and how it affects layout in CSS
• Learn about the CSS display property and its values
• Practice creating layouts using CSS

Day 4: Typography and Colors

• Study typography and how it’s controlled in CSS: font-family, font-weight, line-height
• Learn about CSS color properties and their values
• Practice using typography and color in CSS styles

Day 5: Position Properties

• Learn about positioning elements
• Study all the values of the position property and practice using each one

Day 6 — Flexbox

• Study flexbox and how you can use it for web design, positioning elements, and page layout.
• Learn about flex containers and all the CSS properties that you can use: display, flex-direction, flex-wrap, justify-content, align-content, align-items
• Learn about flex items and all the CSS properties that you can use: order, flex-grow, flex-shrink, flex-basis, align-self, flex

Day 7— Grid

• Study CSS Grids and how you can use it for responsive web design, positioning elements, and page layout.
• Learn about grid containers and all the CSS properties that you can use: display, grid-template-column, grid-template-row, grid-template-areas, column-gap, row-gap, grid-column-gap, grid-row-gap…
• Learn about flex items and all the CSS properties that you can use: grid-column-start, grid-column-end, grid-row-start, grid-row-end, grid-column, grid-row, grid-area…

Week 3: Intermediate HTML

Day 1— Images, Video, and Audio

• Study multimedia and how it’s used in HTML documents
• Learn how to embed images and videos using HTML tags like img, picture, video, audio, and source
• Practice embedding images and videos in web pages

Day 2 and 3— Forms

• Study forms and how they are used in HTML documents
• Learn about the most common types of form tags: form, input, textarea, select, option, label, button
• Learn about the most common input types: text, radio, date, datetime-local, email, file, hidden, number, password, range, submit, reset
• Learn about the most common form tags attributes: method, action, name
• Practice creating basic forms using HTML tagst

Day 4— Web Accessibility

• Study web accessibility and why it’s important
• Learn how to create accessible web pages using HTML tags and attributes and CSS
• Practice creating accessible web pages

Day 5— SEO

• Study SEO and how it’s affected by HTML markup
• Learn how to use meta tags and other HTML elements for SEO
• Practice optimizing web pages for SEO

Day 6 and 7— Responsive design

• Study responsive design and how you can use HTML to make a site responsive.
• Learn about the viewport meta tag and its importance in responsive design

Week 4: Intermediate CSS

Day 1— Advanced Selectors and Properties

• Study advanced CSS selectors like child selectors and attribute selectors
• Learn about CSS properties for backgrounds, borders, and shadows
• Practice using advanced selectors and properties in CSS styles

Day 2 — Responsive Design

• Study responsive design and how it’s achieved in CSS (e.g. media queries, fluid layouts)
• Learn about the viewport meta tag and its importance in responsive design
• Practice creating responsive layouts using CSS media queries

Day 3— CSS Preprocessors

• Study CSS preprocessors (e.g. Sass, Less) and their advantages
• Learn how to install and use a CSS preprocessor
• Practice using variables, nesting, and mixins in a CSS preprocessor

Day 4–7 — CSS Frameworks (Bootstrap)

• Introduce yourself to popular CSS frameworks, and begin to learn how to use the most popular one Bootstrap.
• Use Bootstrap’s pre-made classes to design a layout for a page with navigation, a main body divided into a main section and sidebar, and a footer
• Learn how to style text, forms, buttons, and other HTML elements with pre-made classes.

To wrap up your month of learning and put your knowledge to the test, make an exact replica of a website of your choice. Utilize the developer tools in your browser to examine a website and see how it was built. Try to replicate the same site with a CSS framework like Bootstrap and HTML.