Inspecting Elements With Your Browser : Know Your Website’s Structure

April 18th, 2017 | by Ravi Chahar || 2 Comments |

If you’re a web developer then you would already know that the websites are crafted with lines of code. But the concept is how can you see those codes? Have you heard about inspecting elements with your browser?

For beginners, it’s important to know that every element of your website is the result of HTML and CSS codes.

And you would be amazed to know that you can check those codes without logging to anywhere. Almost every browser allows you to check it.

In this article, you will learn the concept of inspecting elements with your browser directly.

What Is Inspecting Elements And What’s Its Use

In all the latest browsers, there are built-in tools which are called developers tools. You can check any part of your website just by right clicking and select the inspect element option.

You can check HTML, CSS, and JavaAcript codes. You can even see the modification in the design by editing the codes live from your browser.

It helps you finding and fixing the bugs.

When you take a screenshot, you can blur a few elements to secure your personal details. Many people disable the elements’ design and only the required part of the page appears.

If you’re in a support forum then you can use developer tools to inspect and find the errors in the codes.

Most of the time, the slider causes the problem. You can analyze the JavaScript code for a proper fix.

We will not be talking about the Internet Explorer here because it has its own built-in developer tool. As you know Google Chrome is the most used browser so we’re taking this into consideration.

Inspecting Elements And The Use of HTML and CSS

Suppose you want to know the elements of the heading of your blog post. As I have mentioned before, it can be done with two different methods.

Either you use the mouse or the keyboard. With the mouse, right-click and you will see an option to inspect element.

From the keyboard, you can activate the develop tool by pressing CTRL+Shift+I together and click on any element on your website to inspect it.

Though the keyboard option can’t work on all the browsers but the right-click option is all in one solution.

A few websites keep disabling the right-click so in such cases, you should find the proper developer tool for the browser you use.

Once you click on the inspect element option, you will see two boxes in your browser apart from the main web page.

It may appear in the right side corner or at the bottom of the screen. You can stretch and adjust the location accordingly.

One part will consist the HTML codes and another with the CSS codes.

Whenever you hover your mouse to any HTML code, you can see to which element it is targeting.

How To Edit The Inspected Code And Debug It

You may find something wrong in the codes then you can fix that and see the live results in your browser only.

For any HTML element, just double click and you can edit the code. If you’re good with HTML, you can change the layout and see the results.

The same thing can be done with the CSS. Yes, double click and just like HTML, you can edit the CSS codes.

If you want to add any extra CSS then click on the “+” button. It will add the CSS opening and closing tag along with the element you want to target.

The best thing is that whenever you change the CSS values, you will see the results live in your browser.

Whether you change the color or the font-size, the results can be seen.

Inspecting elements with your browser can be helpful if you’re building a new website or trying to revamp it.

Every web developer and designer should know about these developer tools of the browsers.

Just like you did check the HTML and CSS elements, you can also check the error for a slider including the JavaScript.

Isn’t Inspecting Elements With Your Browser Easy

If you’re going to enter in this web development world then you must learn these things. As I have told before, most of the users use Google Chrome but if you use any then go to its settings and you will find the developer tools.

It may be a challenge when you get an unexpected error and even after going through the codes, the design doesn’t look as you expect.

Well, inspecting elements with your browser can help in such situations. You can check what’s the ideal code which can be used with the live output.

Can you now inspect elements and check the codes used? If you still have any doubt, feel free to ask.

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