HTML Primer

Tags
Emphasizing Text
Lists
Links
Inserting Graphics

HTML Primer

HTML is a simple coding scheme for logically identifying parts of a document for display by a browser. You will use a WYSIWYG editor in the coming weeks, but this week you will use only NotePad, WordPad or SimpleEdit (Mac).

Anyone can create a web page using a WYSIWYG editor such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage. But when something goes wrong or if the editor doesn't allow certain functions, a working knowledge of HTML becomes essential. Editing the HTML code directly is often the only way to fix problems. You will find as you work with your editor that you will need to switch from design view to code view to tweak the code in order to make your pages look and act the way you want them to.

HTML defines the contents of a page logically, not physically. The text can be differentiated by its designation as title, heading, paragraph, list, list item, and so on, but not by precise position or appearance. The Browser has final say on layout and presentation.

• Advantages of HTML - users can configure their browser to their personal taste. Low-vision or no-vision users can use a text reader to 'view' web pages in a logical way. Colorblind user can change the colors for better reading.
• Disadvantages - not as flexible as desktop publishing for layout.

The primer is divided into five lessons:

Lesson 1 - Tags
Lesson 2 - Emphasizing Text
Lesson 3 - Lists
Lesson 4 - Links
Lesson 5 - Inserting Graphics

By the end of Lesson 5 you will have built the two pages with the tasks required for the Personal Web Site, Part I. So follow along and let's build a web site.

 

Lesson 1 - Tags