Hyper Text Markup Language
That is the language you use to create a web document on the www (World Wide Web). There are tags and attributes associated with html. Both the tags and attributes must be contained in angle brackets. < > .
The first html tag you will use is the <HTML> tag itself. It is always the first tag at the beginning of a web document written in html, and the last tag you will use at the end of the document, with one difference. You will put the one at the end in a close tag like this </HTML>
Now I will list the barebones tags for a html webpage document for you. Look at them carefully to notice the opening tags and the closing tags.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your document title goes here</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Webtv users will want to check out the following sites, and Computer users will find them useful as well in understanding what html tags and attributes are supported by webtv.
After visiting the sites listed below use your back button to return here for further examples and explanations.
Another must see site when using html is the World Wide Web Consortium, which lists the latest versions of html. You can visit it at: World Wide Web Consortuim
Now that you have had a look at some useful sites that explains things a little better, I will now break down the different tags listed in the barebones example for you.
<HTML>
That is the start or begining tag that is the first tag you will use to indicate that this is an html document.
<HEAD>
This is the section of your web document that will contain not only the title, but any information used by you to indentify the contents, author, description, and meta tags that are used by search engines to scan your web document.
You can check this site out for a detailed description of meta tags. Remember to use you back button to return here. Meta tags
<TITLE>This is where your title goes</TITLE>
The title will appear in the head section of your web document and before the closing head tag.
<BODY>
This section will contain the main portion of your web document. Html tags and their attributes, as well as text, images, etc.
Attributes
Attributes are added within a tag to extend or modify the action of the tag. They are placed after the tag name, separated by one or more spaces. Values of attributes will follow the = sign. URL's require quotation marks " " you would put them in like this:
<a href="URL address">Name of Site</a>
It is a good idea to use quotation marks for all tags containing multiple attributes. Then you will be sure they work.
Nesting
Both the beginning and end tags of the enclosed tag must be completlely contained withing the beginning and end tags of the applied tag, like this:
Get me a <b><i>a drink of water.</i></b>
Get me a drink of water
You will want to have a way for visitors to communicate with you concerning their comments or opinions of your web document.
The tags to use for this are as follows:
<a href="mailto:youremailaddyhere">email me </a>
Now you would put in tags for linking to other sections of your own website, or to somewhere else on the www.
For a link to somewhere on your own site use the following tags.
<a href="nextpage.html">NextPage</a>
To send someone to a different part of the World Wide Web, use these tags:
<a href="URL of the place you want to send them">Name of Site </a>
Using images in your web document.
It is necessary for you to transload any images or background music you wish to use in your web document. The reason you do this is to prevent remote loading. Other websites whose graphics, sounds, images, etc that you may wish to use require that you transload them to you own site. This is to prevent your server from going to their website to load the information back to your web document. (Remote Loading).
Here are three transloaders for you to take a look at:
Starblvd will only transload items that are less than 30KB for free.
This is a free service primarily for webtv users to transload graphics, sounds, and files to their web document for free.
Computer users have the to upload their own items to their web documents, and therefore do not need transloaders.
Be sure to use your back button to return here.
CaSeSeNtaTiVe
While html tags themselves are not casesensative, image names and other items are.
For example you could put <HTML>or<html>
Both would work. I prefer the capitol html because it is easier to read and edit with.
Images
Now images are casesentative and must be put in the correct way. To put in an image that is on your own web document site you would use these tags:
<IMG SRC="nameofimage">
To put in an image or background etc that is not on your web document server your would use the following tags:
<IMG SRC="URLofImage">
Don't forget it is always best to have the things you want to put in you web document on your own website server.
URL's that go somewhere else as links are the exception.
You may also wish to use the width heigth, border, and alt of an image. This will tell browser who have images turned on the size of your image. The alt tag is used for browsers that do not have images turned on or for older browsers that cannot view images. The alt tag is a text desciption of the acutual image.
The syntax or tags for putting in an image with the above information is as follows:
<IMG SRC="nameofimage" width="-----" height="-----" border="------" alt="descriptionofimage">
Now go on to the next section of this lesson and look over the examples I have put there for you.