Basics Too

In HTML You can advance down a line on the page by inserting the   tag (break) if You type out a long sentance and don't use the   tag your sentance will keep going straight off the screen and and You will need to scroll (to the right) to read it all. Spaces and return (hitting enter) are ignored in the HTML code. Spaces do count when they are between typed words but not between the tags.

for example:


		<HTML>

		<HEAD>

		<TITLE>

Title goes in here.....


		</TITLE>

		</HEAD>

		<BODY>

The main part of the Web page would be located here


		</BODY>

		</HTML>

A page with the above code in it will display exactly like the example below.

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Title goes in here.....</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>The main part of the Web page would be located here</BODY></HTML>

The HTML code dosen't care if there are any returns in it at all. It can be all on the first line and it will still work fine, but having the code for a web page all on one line makes the code hard to locate when an error needs to be corrected, and it makes the HTML code hard to read and understand. The opposite (having everything on it's own line) is not good practice because it will add to the file size for no reason, and result in more time for the page to load.

Now we need to put this little bit of information to use. Start out by opening "Notepad" if You don't know how, click the Win95 "Start" button then click on "Run..." (don't click anything else) then just type in notepad and hit enter. That should start the Microsoft® Notepad program, it is an ASCII (plain text) editor that will not save all the page breaks, margins, carrige returns, fonts, etc. That information in a web page will mess it up very bad and just confuse You when it isn't Your fault, after You learn a little bit You can try another editor if You wish... I recommend UltraEdit32, a good editor for any text including HTML but You can do everything with Notepad for now.

With notepad open we need to open a file to edit. In Notepad click the file menu and select "Open" then You will need to look on Your "C:\" drive for a folder called "Program Files", double click it to open it, find a folder called "Pure Logic" double click it to open it, find a folder called "HTML Tutor" double click it to open it, then double click the Work folder. You will now need to click the "Files of type" (at the bottom) and select "All Files (*.*)" then You should see ten files named "0.html", up to "9.html" select "0.html" for now and then click the "Open" button.

Great ! Now You should have an open file and it should have 2 comment lines of text, You can delete those lines or leave them and they will be ignored. For the first page, try just using my example (below), if it works ok change the title and the text to something different then try using the  ,  , ,  , <STRIKE></STRIKE> tags in various places in Your text to see what they change and try to understand how/why it changed. I = italics, U = underline, B = bold, STRIKE = ~~strike through~~.

Note that the   tag does NOT have a close tag ()

Use the following code to make Your first HTML file, take Your time, I'll wait... *grin*
Copy the text and paste it into notepad save the file (make sure it is still named "0.html"
(You may not see the ".html" part ?) here is a hyperlink to Your file when You are ready to test it.

<HTML> 
<HEAD> 
<TITLE> 
Title goes in here
</TITLE> 
</HEAD> 
<BODY> 
 This will later be filled with the contents of Your page
 all the Text, Pictures, Tables, and icons You desire
</BODY> 
</HTML> 

When You are finished You should have a page that looks similar to this:

This will later be filled with the contents of Your page

all the Text, Pictures, Tables, and Icons You desire

To continue learning You can select the topic You wish to learn about and use the examples on that page to work on Your own pages, adding Your own graphics, tables, links, etc. the rest of the tutor is more like a reference to see how to use colors, links, graphics, etc. keep in mind that the areas with a grey background is ready to be copied and pasted into Your HTML file.

Start Learning Colors