HTML CHapter 1

Chapter 1

Supreme Basics

Any page that's on the Internet is done in HTML. It may have had a program help make it, but it's ALWAYS going to be in HTML.

"What does HTML stand for?"

HTML is either:

Hyper Text Module Language

Hyper Text Mark-up Language

Hyper Text Make-up Language.

Yes, you can do a lot with the M.

Anyways, you can make text bold, Italic, Underlined, bigger, smaller, and even type-written.

Of course, it does look sort of complicated......

Anyways, you can make text bold, Italic, Underlined, bigger, smaller, and even <tt>type-written.</tt>

Your next question.....

"What are all those annoying < and >'s doing there?!"

Well, it's my job to tell you. Those are called "Tags". They are telling your browser what do display besides text- the tag tells it to make the text bold, and the tag tells it to display the text Italic.

Also, you'll notice that there is a tag before and after your text. The first tag is called the Opening Tag, and the last tag is called the Closing Tag. Not all tags have a closing tag, but most do.

But now you will also notice that the Closing Tag has a / before the B, I, or whatever the tag is for. That's what "closes" the tag. ALL tags that must have a closing tag MUST have a / in the beginning of the tag. Tags are what make an entire page. In fact, if it wasn't for the closing tag, things would look UGLY. Here's another sample of HTML:

This text will be bold.

^^^Opening Tag||||||||||||||||||||||||||^^^^Closing Tag

One of the biggest mistakes people do is not putting the / before the Closing tag. Try to figure out which one of these is incorrect:

1.) I walked MY dog today.

1.) I walked MY dog today.

2.) I walked MY dog today.

2.) I walked MY dog today.

If you guessed 2, you are correct!

This is a typical mistake- DON'T DO IT!!!!

NOTE: Tags do NOT have to be uppercase- is the same as .

HTML documents are just the same as word processor documents, all but the name ends in .html .htm or .shtml. HTML documents have 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>

</html>

Or, you may also find it easier to read if you put extra blank lines....

<html>

<head>

<title>Title goes here</title>

</head>

<body>

Body goes here

</body>

</html>

NOTE: Putting extra blank lines in your document WILL NOT AFFECT THE WAY IT WILL LOOK!!!! In fact, you could put 5 blank lines inbetween the head, body, and everything else, and it will STILL look the same. The browser will just ignore them.

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>title goes here</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

First off, you'll have to prepare a document- open up Notepad, and save the blank page into your folder that you named "My Website" as Home.htm. Now, open up the HTML document, which will, of course, have nothing on it, but will be in a web browser. Right-click anywhere on the page, and select "View Source". This will display your Notepad document. Type all this in, and then save the document- it will automatically save itself as HTML.

WHAT TO TYPE

<html>

<body>

</body>

</html>

Go back Go to chapter two!!!