HTML Basics
General Info:
- The bare minimum software to create HTML is a text editor, like Notepad,
but any word processor will work, too, as long as you save it as plain text.
- The latest versions of most word processing applications, plus many other
applications, also have the capability or option to convert the documents to
HTML.
- There are also many HTML editors available. Most cost money, but a
few are free. General rule of thumb: the more it costs -- the more features it
has, the more it can do.
- Tags are not case sensitive. <TITLE> or <title> are the same.
- Blank lines and multiple spaces are ignored.
- Anything without tags will be displayed as is.
- Any unknown tag or incorrect tag is usually ignored.
- Different browsers may display tags differently.
- Most tags need a beginning and ending tag such as <TITLE> and
</TITLE>. Others such as <P>, <BR>, <HR> and
<LI>, to name some, do not need an ending tag. When in doubt, use an
ending tag.
- Save your HTML file as index.html
Structure:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Structure notes: Notice the first tag is <HTML> and the last tag
is </HTML>. Every HTML document must begin and end with those tags. The
second tag is <HEAD>. This is where <TITLE> goes, in between
<HEAD> and </HEAD>. Everything else goes between <BODY> and
</BODY>
Title
<TITLE>...</TITLE> Place between <HEAD>
and </HEAD>. This is displayed on the browser title bar
Paragraphs and Line Breaks
<P>...</P> Paragraph tag,
</P> is optional. Inserts blank line.
<BR> Line break (hard return). </BR> is optional. No blank line.
Note: When text follows a heading, such as <H1>...</H1>, a blank
line will follow it automatically. A paragraph or break tag isn't necessary.
Horizontal Rule
<HR> places a horizontal line on the page
(no ending tag necessary)
Formatting
<B>Bold</B> Bold
<I>Italics</I> Italics
<U>Underline</U>
Underline
Headlines
<H1>Headline 1</H1> (largest)
Headline 1
<H2>Headline 2</H2>
Headline 2
<H3>Headline 3</H3>
Headline 3
<H4>Headline 4</H4>
Headline 4
<H5>Headline 5</H5>
Headline 5
<H6>Headline 6</H6> (smallest)
Headline 6
Centering
<CENTER>Centers text</CENTER>
Centers text