The Basics
The first thing you need to know is what HTML is, HTML is the language used to write web pages. HTML stands for "hyper text markup language".
You don't need any special software to write HTML, all you need is either notepad or wordpad or any other word processors that can be saved as a .html file.
The next thing you need to know are the tags used in HTML, the basic tags are:
- Every HTML document starts with a <html> and ends with a </html>
- The next tags are the <title> and the </title>, in between these is the title of the page you are making. This shows up at the top of the screen when it is viewed with a browser.
- The last of the basic tags is the <body> and </body>. This is where the major stuff goes. This is what maps out what the page looks like.
So far we have this:
< html>
<title>_____</title>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Now for the stuff that goes into the body, face it, it would be kind of boring just having a blank screen. The most basic is text. Text can just be typed or you can spice it up a little with different formats:
Paragraph and Breaks
<p> Makes the text in to paragraph form.
<br> This tag shows a break and starts a new line.
<hr> Puts a horizontal line on the page (shown below). The look of this line can be changed but that will be discussed later.
Text Size
<font size=value> value= 7down to 2, 7 is the largest (Netscape only). There is also the <h..> tag. This is usually used for headings.
| Font size | Heading | Point size |
| 7 | ------------------ | 36 |
| 6 | <h1> | 24 |
| 5 | <h2> | 18 |
| 4 | <h4> | 12 (bold) |
| 3 | Body text | 12 (plain) |
| 2 | ------------------ | 9 |
Font sizes can be changed every word or even every letter. But like most other tags the font needs a closing (</font> or </h..>).
Text Alignment
If not specified text is aligned to the left of the page. This gets boring, but there are ways to fix this. There are three ways to align text: left, right, center.
<p align=left>
<center>
<p align=right>
But if you want a different alignment you need to set a new alignment tag. Pictures can also be aligned this way, but we'll leave that for another section.
Making Text Stand Out
Text can also be made to look different besides using size and alignment. It can be changed just like in a text document (and then some).
Putting these; <b>,</b>, around text will add this affect.
Adding <i> and </i> will italicize your text.
The last tags you need are <tt> and </tt>. These make your text look like it was written using a typewriter.
I lied there is one more set of tags, but use these sparingly because they get annoying. These horror of horrors are the <blink> and </blink> tags. They make your text
Colored Text
When you type out an html document the text is going to be black, but this can be changed using the <font color=value> and </font> tags. There are many colors to choose from and when you start using backgrounds you will need all these colors. Because if you cant see the text why write it. A full list of colors will be placed at the end of the manual.
Summary of Tags
<html>,</html> - the beginning and end of every html document
<title>,</title> - shows the title of the page in the status bar at the top of the page
<body>,</body> - this is where most of the stuff you see on the page goes
<p> Makes the text in to paragraph form
<br> This tag shows a break and starts a new line
<hr> Puts a horizontal line on the page
<font size=value> - Netscape only, value=2-7 changes size of text
<h..> - used for heading size
<p align=value> - changes alignment of text; center, left, and right
<b>,</b> - writes text in bold print
<i>,</i> - writes text in italics
<tt>,</tt> - writes text in typewriter font
<blink>,</blink> - makes text blink (don't use, it is annoying)