Chapter 1: The
Basics
Tags...
The Page you are viewing right now is an HTML document.
HTML documents look a lot like word-processing
documents...
You can have bold and italicized,
Larger and Smaller, or it could look
type-written.
Of course, the HTML code for this can look confusing...
You can have <b>bold</b> and
<i>italicized</i>, <font
size=+2>Larger</font> and <font
size=-2>Smaller</font>, or it could look
<tt>type-written</tt>.
So what are all these "<" and ">" things doing here?
When you place a certain thing within these you are making
something known as a tag. For example the
<b> tag is saying to start bold text, and
the </b> tag is saying to stop bold text.
The tag with the slash (/) is known as the closing tag.
Many opening tags require a following closing tag, but not
all do. Tags make up the entire structure of an HTML
document.
<b>This Text is Bold</b>
^^^--Opening Tag ^^^^--Closing Tag
Here are two pieces of HTML code, the second of the two
has an error in it, what is it?
#1 - Bob jumped OVER the fence.
#1 - Bob jumped <b>OVER</b> the
fence.
#2 - Bob jumped UNDER the fence.
#2 - Bob jumped <b>UNDER<b> the
fence.
You should have noticed that the second code is missing
a slash (/) in the tag after the word UNDER, which causes
the web browser to interpret the code as leaving the bold
face on! This is a common error, so be careful of
it!
Note: Tags in HTML are NOT case sensitive. For
example... <title> and
<TitLE> both mean the same thing and are
interpreted as being the same.
Document
Structure...
HTML files are just normal text files... they usually have
the extension of .htm, .html, or .shtml. HTML documents
have two (2) parts, the head and the body.
The body is the larger part of the document, as the body of
a letter you would write to a friend would be. The head of
the document contains the document's title and similar
information, and the body contains most everything
else.
Example of basic HTML document Structure...
<html>
<head><title>Title goes
here</title></head>
<body>Body goes here</body>
</html>
You may find it easier to read if you add extra
blank lines such as follows...
<html>
<head>
<title>Title goes here</title>
</head>
<body>
Body goes here
</body>
</html>
Note: Extra spaces and line breaks (blank
lines) will be ignored when the HTML is interpreted... so
add them if you wish to do so.
Whatever falls between the TITLE tags will be the title of
the document, when the page is viewed it is usually found
in the title bar at the top of the screen. [Note: You may
NOT use other tags within the TITLE tags (Example: You
cannot have the code read: <title><b>title
goes here</b></title>.]
Example of how titles are viewed...
In Netscape Navigator...
Netscape - [Title goes here] OR Title goes here -
Netscape [depending on version]
In Microsoft Internet Explorer...
Title goes here - Microsoft Internet Explorer
Whatever you place between the BODY tags will fall into the
major area of the document window, and therefore it is the
largest part of your HTML document.
Your own HTML
page...
To begin writing your own HTML page, type the following
into a new text file:
<html>
<head><title>My Home
Page</title></head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Save the text file as "Home.htm". Please note,
MOST ISPs require that your main file to show your home
page be called index.html
Go To Chapter 2
Return to index
| 