As e-publishing seems to be fast overtaking traditional print publishing, it is more important than ever to learn the basics of coding. Even if you don’t plan on working directly with code, it can still be a valuable skill to have in this quickly changing industry.
For anyone with no computer science background, learning code can be daunting at first. Prior to taking a Production course at Ryerson, my only experience with coding was creating an HTML website in Grade 9 Business class (complete with tacky flashing colours and hideous fonts). However, after learning basic XML and creating my first EPUB in my Ryerson course, I realized that it is actually very simple – anyone can pick up the basics. This knowledge of XML ended up being very valuable during my internship as I was working directly with the XML files for our journal articles. This was an unexpected aspect of the internship that I actually enjoyed immensely.
Now, you may be thinking, I’m going into publishing because I love working with words, not code! But trust me, knowing some basic code is immensely useful in this industry and far less complicated than you may think. And you never know when having at least a basic knowledge of the lingo of EPUB and HTML will be valuable in your profession. Even if you’re not in production, knowing code can be very handy in marketing and promotion where knowledge of how to write and edit a website can be important.
There are many wonderful (free) online resources that can get you started as well as some affordable courses that will teach you the essentials. I’ll leave you with a couple of good sites to help you get going:
w3schools.com (free, online tutorials on HTML, JavaScript, XML, and more)
Ladies Learning Code (beginner-level computer programming workshops – not just for women!)
