Hello, and welcome to my HTML Tips, Help and lots of resources free for you to use. This site is specially geared for the beginner Webmaster!
On these pages I have tried to provide simple step by step tutorials to the basic HTML tags that you will need to create your homepage. Where possible, I have "shown by example" just what the various HTML tags "do". Please read my "Stuff to know" section below first, for some specific information about getting started.
Stuff To Know:
What is HTML?
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a series of tag elements within a text document, and the language in which browsers use to view information uploaded to the internet. It was created by Tim Berners-Lee in Geneva, while he was at CERN, which is the European Laboratory for Particle Physics.
HTML Editors
The first thing you need is an editor, a program to write and edit HTML. Preferably a text editor, the best way to go is to entirely write the code yourself. You should understand the consequences of each and every bit of HTML. A regular word processor cannot be used. No matter how good yours is to write text with. These editors make files which cannot be read with a browser, and often it's quite complicated to change this. Also don't be seduced into using a WYSIWYG editor.
For now forget about all those wonderful editors and just use a simple text editor. Windows has one built in called NotePad. Others out there are Crimson Editor, EditPlus, Coffee Cup, Dreamweaver, TextPad, I've used most of these editors, now I just use Dreamweaver, my favorite.
Browsers
The next thing you need is a (web) browser. You probably already have such a program, else you would not be able to read this page. Most used nowadays is Microsoft Internet Explorer. A lot of people still use Netscape too. Another nice one is the Opera, a fast and compact browser. Mozilla Firefox is more popular today. It would probably be wisest to download and install any of these two browsers, to test your pages in both of them.Testing
One final advice: test everything you make. Take care your HTML is absolutely flawless. Make sure all your links work. Make sure all pictures exist. Test your pages in different browsers. If it looks good in one browser, it may look like garbage in another. It is never right the first time. Don't put half finished sites on the web. Only after everything works locally from your hard disk, publish it to the web server. Keep testing and tweaking until everything works without a hitch.
Getting Started
The basic elements of a HTML document are:
- The Document Type <html> </html> Which is listed at the very beginning and the very end of the document.
- Title <title> </title> Specifies the Title of the page (what shows in the top border of the webpage window) both the beginning and ending tags must be entirely enclosed within the Header.
- Header <head> </head> Contains descriptive information for the web page such as the Title, Meta Tags (keywords used by search engines to find your site), Styles, the link to a cascading stylesheet, and some Java codes. The Header opens and closes before the Body opens.
- Body <body </body> The very beginning and the very ending
of the "body" of the document. Most of the HTML for the web page goes between these two tags.
Upon the ending of your document the ending tags would be in reverse order. First ending the
tag.. and then the