So what is HTML? Do I need to know it using an HTML Editor? |
- HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
- An HTML file is a text file containing bizarre words and symbols
- The bizarre words tell the Web browser how to display the page
- An HTML file must have an htm or html file extension (index.htm or index.html)
- An HTML file can be created using a simple text editor
Fortunately, we aren't going to concern ourselves very much with the bizarre words because they aren't necessary. Aolpress, Frontpage, Dreamweaver and CoffeeCup are all examples of WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editors. This means that basically what you type in them is what your webpage will look like.
However, it sure doesn't hurt to know some HTML to use to tweak any HTML editor.
How about an example of HTML what does a webpage look like?
Sort of like what is below.
In fact highlight and copy what you see in the box above (CTRL+C) and place it in our online editor on the right side of this page (CTRL+V) and click view.
What you saw was a webpage generated by the simple lines above. Now copy what is in the box above, paste it into Notepad or Wordpad or even Word and change the line "This is my first homepage" to anything you want to say. Now save it as mypage.htm and launch your web-browser and open it from your hard drive. You just used a simple text editor to make your first page.
Now why am I showing you this? because I want you to see how we had to do each page back in the 90's. You'll learn to appreciate how easy it is today with a web editor.
Tags and Elements
HTML tags are surrounded by the two characters < and >
In the example above <body> is an HTML tag.
An HTML tag is almost always surrounded by <> brackets.
HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b>
The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag.
The text between the start and end tags is the element
content.
In the example above:
<b>This text is bold</b>
<b> is a tag and </b> is a tag, but together they are an element.
"This text is bold" is the element content or what the element contains.
HTML tags are not case sensitive, <b> means the same as <B> but you need to get in a habit of using lowercase in everything.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: After I have created HTML file, but I can't find it with my browser. Why?
A: watch carefully where you saved it from withing notepad or wordpad. Sometimes those programs save things in odd places. Create a directory on your computer and use it for all of the saving and you'll always know where you put those files. If you are using Windows use the Start-Search function to find your file.
Q: I have tried to edit an HTML file but the browser still shows the old page.
A: Hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard and hit refresh or reload in your browser. This is caused by a cach system in modern browsers.