HTML Basics

HTML Basics

Here I am going to introduce you to some of the basics of HTML. First let's try something realy simple. In your word processor type something. For example:

Under Construction ! Sorry, but this site is currently under construction. Check back real soon. I am working hard. It is just a matter of time. If you have any suggestions e-mail me at dave@usa.net
Save file as new.html in your folder. Then you should launch your browser and in the window where you type in the address (http://www.something.com ...), type in the path of this file, or the folder in which you saved the document. For example: C:\yourfolder\new.html. Then hit enter, you'll see something like this:

Under Construction ! Sorry, but this site is currently under construction. Check back real soon. I am working hard. It is just a matter of time.If you have any suggestions e-mail me at dave@usa.net

As you can see it doesn't matter how many spaces you'll make between the words, the most you can get in the browser is one. Also keep in mind that the text you just wrote is not in HTML. From now on I'll start to teach real HTML.
HTML consists of tags or codes which are inserted in a document to control the way the document looks in the web browser.Here are some of the basic rules for using HTML.

Most of the codes in the document are included in <>: <code goes here>.
All of the codes which I am going to introduce are not case sensetive. That means if you have a code , the browser is going to interpret it as .
And again most of the times if you begin a code you'll end it by </code>. For example: Welcome to my homepage !.
You can use several codes at once.

First I'll introduce you to some of the basic codes.

1. Your every document should start with the code <html> and end with </html>. This command basicly means that the document is written in HTML. Although it is not necessary (if you are not going to include it, it is not going to affect anything) I'll still recomend you to use it. As I already said HTML is not case sensetive and it doesn't matter if you type <HtMl> or <htmL>, the browser is going to interpret it as <html>. You may have already noticed that at the end of the document you should type </html> not <html>, just like I said in the rules: if you start a code you'll end it by adding a slash (/) before the code.

2. Text effects:

If you want to make text bold, you should add code before the text and when you don't want the text to be bold anymore you should end it by .
If you want your text to be italic, you should add code before the text, and again end it by using code .
You can also use typewriter text by adding <tt> before the text you want and ending the code by </tt>.
To underline your text you can use code .
To ~~cross out~~ some of the text you can use code <strike>, and end the code by using </strike>.
To show text as a ^superscript you can use code . (Especially useful if you are working with mathematical formulas)
To show text as a _subscript you can use code . (Especially useful if you are working with mathematical formulas)

Remember: you can always use several codes at a time! For example if you want your text to be underlined, italic and bold you can use all of the 3 codes at once.

Now that we went through all of those great codes, let's write a simple document written in HTML.(Don't forget to save the file in your word processor as filename.htm or filename.html.)

<html> Sorry, but this site is currently under construction. Check back real soon. I am working hard. It is just a matter of time. <tt>If you have any suggestions e-mail me at dave@usa.net</tt> <html>

And it would look like this in the web browser:

Sorry, but this site is currently under construction. Check back ^real soon. I am working hard. It is just a matter of time. If you have any suggestions e-mail me.

Next step coming really soon