Coding and Design Tips & Tutorials

Digital Marketing is advertising via the internet, social media, email, and other virtual mediums. Although digital marketing includes offline marketing efforts like TV ads and electronic billboards, most people think of search engines, websites, email, and social media apps when they hear digital marketing. And for a good reason! An overwhelming number of hours are spent each day on electronic devices. Hubspot’s 2018 digital marketing analysis offers some insight that supports a strict focus on virtual marketing efforts:

• Almost 50% of Americans check their smartphone before getting out of bed
• Companies that create at least 16 posts per month triple their website traffic compared to companies that blog monthly
• More than 75% of adults use Facebook every day

Here’s a free sample exercise to get you started photo retouching in Photoshop and get a taste of Noble’s teaching style. 

In this step-by-step exercise, you’ll perform common retouching tasks: eliminating red eye, erasing facial blemishes, and removing an undesired background element. Download a PDF of the exercise and class files to begin.

Sublime Text with Emmet allows you to automatically update width and height attributes on img tags. Place the cursor inside an img tag and hit Ctrl–Shift–I (Mac) or Ctrl–U (Windows).

Note: This keystroke requires Emmet to be installed in Sublime Text. For instructions on how to install Emmet, download our Sublime Text Enhancements Installation Guide.

From web developers to app developers, Git is useful to anyone who writes code or track changes to files. So what’s it all about and why should you start using it?

What is Git?

Git is the most commonly used version control system. Git tracks the changes you make to files, so you have a record of what has been done, and you can revert to specific versions should you ever need to. Git also makes collaboration easier, allowing changes by multiple people to all be merged into one source. 

So regardless of whether you write code that only you will see, or work as part of a team, Git will be useful for you.

Git is software that runs locally. Your files and their history are stored on your computer. You can also use online hosts (such as GitHub or Bitbucket) to store a copy of the files and their revision history. Having a centrally located place where you can upload your changes and download changes from others, enable you to collaborate more easily with other developers. Git can automatically merge the changes, so two people can even work on different parts of the same file and later merge those changes without loosing each other’s work!

In Sublime Text, you can quickly jump to any line in the code. Hit Ctrl–G (Mac and Windows). Type in a line number and hit Return/Enter to go to that line.

Aspiring coders often ask, should I learn front-end or back-end development? The best coding language to learn and whether you learn front or back-end development depends on what you intend to do. Different languages are used to create webpage layouts, style text, create slideshows, build ecommerce functionality, program search functions, etc. Some software, such as Salesforce, allow you to customize the software to your needs with specific coding languages.

The two primary categories of coding languages for the web are:

• Front-End Languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript are used to design the look and feel of a website. These languages alter color, typography, layout, animation, interaction, text, and images. Everything that the user sees and interacts with is built with front-end languages.
• Back-End Languages: PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, and Python are back-end languages that manage data and input from website users. For example, when you type a message into a website contact form and hit send, PHP code can send the data to a recipient’s email, or store it into a database. Data typed into a search engine, contact form, or searchable directory are other types of data that would be managed on the back-end.

What about frameworks? Framework (such as Bootstrap, jQuery, and GreenSock) are not coding languages, they are collections of code that allow you to do things more efficiently in a specific language. For example, the Bootstrap framework consists of CSS and JavaScript that simplify complex processes like creating grid-based layouts, buttons, menus, and more. jQuery and GreenSock are JavaScript frameworks that let you quickly add interactive JavaScript functionality to websites, faster than writing plain JavaScript.

To jump to the beginning or end of the line, hold Cmd and hit Left or Right Arrow (Mac). Windows users, hit Home to jump to the beginning of the line and End to jump to the end of the line. This is an operating system feature so it should work in any text editor. 

This post was written by Erica Freedman, Content Marketing Specialist at SwitchUp.

In recent years, the coding bootcamp boom has saturated the market with a variety of programs. Many software engineering and coding bootcamps offer full-time, immersive programs that can cost as much as $17,000 and require months of time to complete. Individuals who are working in full-time positions may not have the ability to quit their current career to pursue a new one. Flexible options offer a potential route to achieving a shift, but some individuals may not need a full-length course to achieve their professional dreams.

Sublime Text remembers the last 15 items you’ve copied and you can paste any one of them!

Hit Cmd–Option–V (Mac) or Ctrl–K then Ctrl–V in quick succession (Windows) to access the list of copied items. Use the arrow keys to select an item and hit Return/Enter to paste.

In Sublime Text, you can select lines with a keystroke. Hit Cmd–L (Mac) or Ctrl–L (Windows) to select the current line. Repeat the keystroke to add the line below.