HTML is an acronym that stands for Hypertext Markup Language.
HTML uses special codes called TAGS that
a web browser translates into the formatted text and images that you see when you surf the
Internet.
These tags are enclosed within angled brackets. < > There
are two kinds of tags; OPEN and CLOSE.
Open tags are indicated by the angled brackets < > .
Close tags have a slash after the first bracket. < / >.
Tags normally appear in pairs.
Every HTML document starts out with the same basic
Starting Tags. Tags can be typed in either uppercase or lowercase or a combination of
both, but many people choose to place them in uppercase because it is easier to read.
Every Web page needs to contain the same basic starting tags as shown later below.
The BODY tags enclose the information that you want to display in
the main browser window. If it isn't in the body section, it will not be seen by
web page readers.
You can easily view the HTML for web pages by looking at
their source code. If your browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, simply click on the VIEW menu and choose SOURCE.
If the page you are viewing has frames, you may not be able to see the complete
HTML this way, so instead right click on the page you would like to view and choose
"View Source" from the pop up window that appears.
If your browser of choice is Netscape, click on your VIEW menu and choose DOCUMENT SOURCE.
It is often helpful when you are first learning about Web Page Design to look at pages
that you like the appearance of, and viewing their HTML.
Creating, Saving, and Viewing
an HTML file
HTML is not very difficult to learn, and the only real
equipment you need to create it is a plain text editor (like Windows 95 Notepad), a
browser (to view what you've done and to check your results), and - you
guessed it, a COMPUTER.
A basic text editor like Notepad, will automatically
save your files as text files (with a file extension of .txt).
Browsers look for files that have an extension of .htm or.html, so when you are saving your file you must save
it with the extension .htm if you are using DOS/Windows 3.1 (File -> Save As->
myfile.htm) or .html if you are using a Windows 95 (File->Save As->
myfile.html). You should use your web browser to test and preview your work.
[Let's write some!]
If you realize that you've made a mistake and your web page
does not turn out the way you have expected, you can go back and fix it in your text
editor. In Notepad you should choose File-> Open, select the location of your file and
make sure the file type you are looking for says "all files" because your file
no longer has a .txt extension.
If you've made changes to your web page, save your changes
and either re-open your file in the browser OR press your REFRESH
button in Internet Explorer or the RELOAD
button in Netscape Navigator. [Let's write some!]