HTML Coding

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Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The Very Basics of HTML
  3. More HTML Basics
  4. Generic Text Formatting Commands

More to come!� Check back often.

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Introduction

The first thing I thought when I decided to learn HTML is, "Oh, no! Not another programming language!" I quickly learned, however, that HTML is not a true programming language, but rather a formatting language. If you look at the code for this page, you will see that the page is mostly text with little, semi-cryptic commands in brackets. These commands, called tags, tell your Web browser how to present the information to you.

I was also relieved to find that I did not have to buy any software to take advantage of my lessons in HTML. Windows 95 comes with all you really need to be writing web pages. I am referring to Notepad and Internet Explorer.

Of course, fancier programs exist which do help to make web page design easier. These programs, such as Microsoft Front Page, Corel WebDesigner, and Netscape Composer, have many features but lock you into a set number of choices. Being able to directly edit the HTML code helps you know how to tweak your page design so that it comes out exactly the way you want it.

This tutorial is designed for the complete beginner and assumes little knowledge of computers. Some basic knowledge of your operating system, a text editor, and a browser are all you need. Please note that this tutorial is centered around Netscape Communicator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. If you are using something other than these two browsers, some of the tags and properties mentioned here may not work. For instance, if you are using LYNX (a text-only browser available on DOS and UNIX systems), none of the graphics tags will work.

By the way, if you have a browser not mentioned here that is shareware or freeware, and you would like it tested, e-mail me and I will set up a way for you to transfer the file to me. I am always interested in different browsers and I am trying to compile a list of which browsers can use which tags. Criteria for the browsers:

  1. MUST be shareware or freeware
  2. MUST run either in Windows 95, DOS, or Linux

Send your e-mail requests to: Flynn Arrowstarr

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The Very Basics of HTML

All Web pages written in HTML have three basic tags:

  1. The <HTML> tag
  2. The <TITLE> tag
  3. The <BODY> tag

Most every tag in HTML has a corresponding end tag:

  1. The </HTML> tag
  2. The </TITLE> tag
  3. The </BODY> tag

Believe it or not, this is all you really need to create a page on the World Wide Web. Of course, the page would look pretty dull (click here to see what I mean).

Quite a snooze, wasn't it. But, by setting parameters on the <BODY> tag, we can jazz it up a bit. We'll cover that in Part Two.

For now, the first thing you should do is open Notepad. Then, open Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you happen to be using). Once you have both Notepad and your browser loaded, you are ready to begin. To start, type in the following in a blank Notepad screen.

     <HTML>
     <HEAD>
     <TITLE></TITLE>
     </HEAD>
     <BODY>
     </BODY>
     </HTML>

Save this file as template.html. You can then use this file as a basis for all of your web pages.

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More HTML Basics

In this section, we'll cover two things:

  1. <BODY> tag parameters
  2. <FONT> tag parameters

A. <BODY> tag parameters.

The <BODY> tag marks the beginning of the main portion of a web page. The <BODY> tag can also control the look of the page. Several properties can be used with the tag to change how a page looks to different browsers. These properties are:

ALINK=Color

This property sets the color of active links. An active link is a link to another document which has been clicked on, but the mouse button has not been released. The color can be either the color's name, or a six-digit value representing the amount of red, blue, and green to add to the color. Not all browser's recognize color names, and some browsers know different names than other browsers for the same color. All browsers, however, can read color numbers. It is, therefore, a good idea to use color numbers whenever you design a web page. To see the 16 basic colors and their color numbers, click here

BACKGROUND=Document

This property allows you to select an image to use as a background for a page. For instance, the background I am using on this page is called earth.jpg. So, for the browser to load the image as the background, you would type:

<BODY BACKGROUND="earth.jpg">

The browser then loads the image, and tiles it automatically.

BGCOLOR=Color

BGPROPERTIES=FIXED

LEFTMARGIN=Value

LINK=Color

TEXT=Color

TOPMARGIN=Value

VLINK=Color

You should note the BGPROPERTIES=FIXED, LEFTMARGIN=Value, and TOPMARGIN=Value properties are only available in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. While these properties can help spruce up your web page, it is not considered good design to use browser-specific tags and properties. I try to avoid such tags and properties whenever possible.

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