<body>
<h1 id="mainTitle">Passing the FCC projects: my way!</h1>
<nav id="navbar">
<header class="navBarTitle">Quick Navigation</header>
<ul>
<li><a href="#My_Structure" class="nav-link">My Structure</a></li>
<li><a href="#Resources" class="nav-link">Resources</a></li>
<li><a href="#Before_You_Start" class="nav-link">Before You Start</a></li>
<li><a href="#Gather_What_You_Need" class="nav-link">Gather What You Need</a></li>
<li><a href="#Start_Your_Build" class="nav-link">Start Your Build</a></li>
<li><a href="#Test_The_Build" class="nav-link">Test The Build</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<main id="main-doc">
<h2 id="description">Fighting my way through the projects, I have found a recipe that works for me.</h2><hr>
<section class="main-section" id="My_Structure">
<header><h3 class="sectionTitle">My Structure</h3></header>
<article><h3 class="articleHeading">This might seem an odd way to tackle the projects, but after fighting for days and days with my first project, going backwards and forwards, deleting huge chunks of code and starting again, over and over again, I have found this to be the way forward for me.</h3>
<ol>
<li>Set some time aside</li>
<li>Read through the instructions thoroughly</li>
<li>Draw my ideal layout</li>
<li>Hunt for images and links I will need</li>
<li>Set up a folder with all the files I need
<ol type="i">
<li>Images</li>
<li>Index</li>
<li>Style</li>
</ol>
<li>Build the page passing all of the tests</li>
<li>Style the page somewhere near where I want it to be</li>
<li>Add the content</li>
<li>Finalise the styling</li>
<li>Check in a responsive window</li>
<li>Submit</li>
</ol>
<hr>
</article>
</section>
<section class="main-section" id="Resources">
<header><h2 class="sectionTitle">Resources</h2></header>
<article>
<h3 class="articleHeading">The FCC curriculum is brilliant, but for me it was not enough to pass my first project</h3>
<p>What the curriculum gave me, was enough knowledge to find the questions I needed to ask, this led to many other places to find out information. Books, YouTube and Google searches. The ones I found most useful are listed below.</p>
<div class="videoLinks">
<p class="articleHeading">Follow these links for some great YouTube content.</p>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQN-pnXPaVg">This FCC video teaches the basics of HTML simply and brilliantly.</a><hr>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zero+to+hero+css">Another FCC video dives into CSS, this is a 6 hour video and it took me weeks to get through it but well worth it!</a><hr>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56OJJTxCEN4">This video gives you the solution to the product landing page, I watch these before I start planning my projects.</a>
</div>
<p>I found <a href="https://www.w3schools.com/">W 3 Schools</a> to be invaluable when it comes to looking up code, it gives examples and I can try out the solution in their own CodePen<p>
<p>The book HTML by John Duckett is worth its weight in gold, I paid just under £5 second hand from<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189/ref=sr_1_4?adgrpid=3818522352&hvadid=79852061861831&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=41353&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-79852071264734%3Aloc-188&keywords=jon+duckett+html&qid=1637871886&sr=8-4"> Amazon</a> it is missing CSS Grid and FlexBox but as a quick reference and a bit of bedtime reading, it taught me a great deal, especially after gaining a good understanding from the FCC curriculum.
</article>
</section>
<hr>
<section class="main-section" id="Before_You_Start">
<header><h2 class="sectionTitle">Before You Start</h2></header>
<article>
<h3 class="articleHeading">I was once taught <i>failing to plan is preparing to fail.</i></h3>
<p class="subHeading">Set some time aside.</p>
<p>This is vital, I've been driving my family mad with this, sneaking on the laptop to squeeze in 10 minutes here and there, it was, and still is frustrating for me and them. Its important to carve some quality time out to work on the projects, and let your family know what you are doing, don't say I'm going to finish this in 3 hours because you will just frustrate yourself, and those around you, just set some time aside to focus on the project and stick to it! <i>I'm still struggling with this.</i>
<p class="subHeading">Read through the instructions thoroughly.</p>
<p>I print off and read through several times, I make quick reference notes such as</p>
<p>My main element must contain <code>id="main-doc" .</code></p>
<p>There must be a minimum of 5 <code> section elements</code> within <code> the #main-doc</code> element.</p>
<p> The <code>.main-section</code> element must contain at least <code> 10 <p> elements.</code></p>
<p class="subHeading">Plan your build</p>
<p>I then watch the solution video, this gives me a greater understanding of what I need to do and how to approach the project. From this I draw up a quick wire frame to decide what I want to achieve in terms of layout, I try not to deviate too much from this, If I come across a problem I work to fix it rather than changing the layout.</p>
<hr>
</article>
</section>
<section class="main-section" id="Gather_What_You_Need">
<header><h2 class="sectionTitle">Gather What You Need</h2></header>
<article>
<h3 class="articleHeading">Go forth and hunt</h3>
<p>I found that when building my first page, I was going backwards and forwards from learning and building to looking for content. The distractions of hunting online for the correct image or the font I wanted was distracting during the build. So instead on my next project I found all this beforehand.</p>
<p>Doing this not only helped me to focus on the build, but when I found I had the wrong images too big, too small, wrong file path etc, it made me realise how important it is to get this right in the first instance.</p>
<p>Google fonts is a great place to find fonts to match the project, on this one I have chosen what I believe a techie font.</p>
<p>Font Awesome is perfect for icons, although it took me a while to learn how to use them.</p>
<p>Images are a nightmare.</p>
<p class="articleHeading">Prepare what you have gathered</p>
<p>When I watched the Zero to Hero video, I learned how to use a text editor,<a href="https://www.sublimetext.com/"> Sublime Text</a> I spent a lot of time working with it, so rather than using the CodePen for building the projects, I build them in the editor and then copy and paste them into CodePen.</p>
<p>Before I start I create a new folder on my PC this one is named <code>TechDocPage</code> then I create 3 new pages in sublime </p>
<ul>
<li class="subHeading">index.html</li>
<li class="indent">for my HTML</li>
<li class="subHeading">style.css</li>
<li class="indent">for my CSS</li>
<li class="subHeading">notes.txt</li>
<li class="indent">here I paste all of my links, and make notes for example, when I finish for the day I leave a note where I am up to, or subjects I am not sure on etc.</li>
</ul>
<p class="readyToBuild"> "Ready to build!"</p>
<hr>
</article>
</section>
<section class="main-section" id="Start_Your_Build">
<header><h2 class="sectionTitle">Start Your Build</h2></header>
<article><h3 class="articleHeading">Now you have everything, lay the first brick</h3>
<p>I always start by building the basic structure of the page, setting DOCTYPE, header, footer, body etc, then build within these tags.</p>
<p>Then I paste the below code, right at the end of my closing HTML tag, this allows me to run the FCC tests in my own browser.</p>
<p class="fccLink"> <script src="https://cdn.freecodecamp.org/testable-projects-fcc/v1/bundle.js"></script></p>
<p>One by one I work through the User Stories, testing after each one and not moving onto the next until one has passed, sometimes if I'm feeling really smart I pass several tests at once.</p>
<p>Once I have all of my tests passing, using placeholder text, images etc I then go about styling the page.</p>
<p>Fonts go in first then focus on the layout, <i>the layout is the biggest headache for me.</i></p>
<p>Then I replace the dummy content with my content, this may seem a bit crazy but it allows me to focus on the build, rather than getting distracted with creating content. I'm sure as I get more practice I will just do it all in one go.</p>
<p>I then finalize the styling, formatting text size, decoration, colors etc. </p>
<p>Sometimes by changing elements it totally changes the layout, this has taught me to fix the problems, it may seem like a crazy way to approach a project but I have learned so much from this approach.</p>
<hr>
</article>
</section>
<section class="main-section" id="Test_The_Build">
<header><h2 class="sectionTitle">Test The Build</h2></header>
<article ><h3 class="articleHeading">Now that you have built, you need to test it against the elements</h3>
<p>I open up the project in Google Chrome right click and at the bottom of that menu click Inspect.</p>
<p>At the top right of the page you can select a responsive view.</p>
<p>Resize the window, making sure it is readable on different devices.</p>
<p>I have learnt to use relative units where possible such as <i>% em and rem.</i></p>
<p>On this particular project I have also used media queries to make sure it runs well on all viewports.</p>
<p>Once I'm relatively happy, I copy and paste both the HTML and CSS into CodePen and submit my project.</p>
</article>
</section>
<p class="articleHeading">Top tip, don't spend too much time on one problem, if you can't solve it in 15-20 minutes, walk away and do something else, then come back to it, if you can't fix it, use the forum, I cant believe how much help people are on there, and both times, the problem was simple and easily resolved with a bit of advice.</p>
</main>
</body>
<script src="https://cdn.freecodecamp.org/testable-projects-fcc/v1/bundle.js"></script>
</html>
!
