HTML for People Who Want to Learn -- HTML for Starters

First Things First

There are a few standard tags that you will have to write every time you make a Web page. Some browsers may be forgiving and format the page the way you want it to look if you omit these tags, but some may not! Therefore, you should type these tags every time you make a Web page so that everybody that comes to your page can see it the way it is intended to look.

<HTML> </HTML>

This is what tells the browser that your page is an HTML document, along with saving the page with the extension ".htm" or ".html". These tags enclose the whole document.

<HEAD> </HEAD>

This tag does not effect how your page will look. "Then what is it for?" you ask. Descriptive information such as the page title, keywords that may be useful to search engines, and other data that is not considered document content are put in-between the HEAD tags.

<TITLE> </TITLE>

This is for the title of your page. Everything you type in-between these tags will appear at the very top-left corner of the window in most browsers. (That's how I got "HTML for Starters -- Chapter 1" to appear on the title bar.) The title tag is entered inside the <HEAD> </HEAD> tags.

Tip: When someone bookmarks a page, the name of the bookmark is taken from the <TITLE> tag. Therefore, be sure to use a short, descriptive, and unique title!

<BODY> </BODY>

Everything that will appear on your Web page is entered in-between the BODY tags. The only time that the BODY tag is not used is in a FRAMESET document (but you can put it inside the NOFRAMES part).

Find out what the attributes for the BODY tag are.

How the basic HTML Web page looks

<HTML>

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Enter title of page here</TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY>

Put whatever you want to be on your page in-between the BODY tags.

</BODY>

</HTML>

Headings

One of the first things on your page will most likely be a heading. A heading briefly describes the topic of the section it introduces, and is normally used for headlines and/or subheadings. Headings are usually larger and bolder than normal text.

This is a level-one heading.

<H1>This is a level-one heading.</H1>

Use this for the main heading, or headline, of your Web page.

This is a level-two heading.

<H2>This is a level-two heading.</H2>

Use this for a subheading in your Web page.

This is a level-three heading.

<H3>This is a level-three heading.</H3>

You can use up to six levels of headings (<H1> - <H6>), with each successive heading normally being a little smaller in size than the last.

This is a level-six heading.

<H6>This is a level-six heading.</H6>

I don't know what you would use this for (no one likes to read fine print).

Attibutes of the heading tag

<H? ALIGN=****>
Replace ? with a digit 1-6

ALIGN=LEFT: Aligns the heading against the left margin.
ALIGN=CENTER: Centers the heading on the page.
ALIGN=RIGHT: Aligns the heading against the right margin.

HTML for Starters

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Next: Chapter 2

Last Modified: Saturday, 18-Jul-98 21:49:23 PDT
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