Basic HTML

What Is HTML?

This lesson introduces the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which instructs Web browsers how to produce formatted Web pages.
The Hypertext Markup Language

HTML formats text. HTML inserts format instructions into plain text documents. HTML reminds Web browsers where to take paragraph breaks, when to change font attributes, where to insert a picture, etc. These format instructions are called HTML tags.
Tags provide the information needed by your Web browser to correctly set up a Web page. HTML tags are always surrounded by angle brackets. Some contain forward slashes. Others contain additional arguments or options. For example, <P>, </BLOCKQUOTE>, and <A HREF="MYDOC.HTML"> are all valid HTML tags.
Matching tags such as <PRE> and </PRE> are called "containers" and surround the information they format. The closing tag is always prefixed with a forward slash.

HTML tag attributes. Some HTML tags offer tag attributes. Tag attributes are options that affect or enhance the way the tag displays content on screen. Attributes are embedded into the open tag. The image tag <IMG SRC="filename"> inserts an image on a Web page. The image tag has several HTML attributes, SRC, HEIGHT, WIDTH, BORDER and ALT. Each attribute has a value; consider the following:
<IMG SRC="MYPIC.GIF" WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 BORDER=0 ALT=Alternative Text>
Each attribute offers a value for that specific attribute. You will learn more about attributes throughout the lesson sets on this CD-ROM.
Tags ignore carriage returns. As long as individual words are not broken apart, HTML tags are insensitive to carriage returns. The tag
<IMG SRC="MYPIC.GIF" HEIGHT=40 WIDTH=20 BORDER=3 ALT=Alternative text> can be written on several lines as

<IMG
SRC="MYPIC.GIF"
HEIGHT=40
WIDTH=20
BORDER=3
ALT=Alternative text>

without any loss of formatting information.

The process of Creating your first html document and previewing it in Internet Explorer.

Open a new file in notepad (start-programs-accessories-notepad) or (open Internet Explorer then click view on the menu bar then source-this will open notepad so in notepad click file then new)
You should now be ready to start typing in a new html document.

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
My first page
</body>
</html>
Now save the file by clicking file then save and give it a name such mypage.htm or mypage.html and save it to some where you can find it. Please no spaces in the file names or capital letters.
Do not close Notepad. But either open Internet Explorer or activate it if it iis already open and open your htm file by clicking File-Open-Browse (find your file) then Open then Ok.
You should see a page with My first Page
To add more content and formatting click on Notepad on the Taskbar and type in
what text you want and tags you need then click File-Save to save your changes Do
not close Notepad but Click on internet Explorer on the task bar and just click the Refresh button on the toolbar. and Voila you should see your changes.
And this is the process that you keep repeating until you have finished your page.