So You're Ready To Learn HTML?
Great! But what is HTML? HTML stands for 'Hypertext Markup
Language' which is the standard for web pages all over the Internet and also for
many company "Intranets" (internal web sites), and extranets (portals
companies host for their clients). There are other technologies that mix with
HTML, but for now we'll just stick to HTML. The best way to learn HTML is
to dive right in. Please note: for the purpose of this tutorial it is necessary
that you have a basic understanding of your computer and the
directories/folders on your pc.
Getting Started
You already know how to find files and directories/folders on
your computer? All-righty! Let's get started! Create a folder named
"www" off of you C drive. "C:\www". This will give you
a place to keep your web pages, and will help keep you organized.
Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish... there are many HTML editing programs available, but before we talk about them we will run through some basic HTML theory. It's ALWAYS helpful to know how to fix the code that the HTML editors spit out for you!
Building Your First Web page...
Follow these steps to create your first web page.
Step 1
Open Note Pad (Go to your start button, then accessories and open Note Pad)
Step 2
Type (don't cut and paste) the following code. If you retype it you will
become more familiar with what the code actually consists of. Later on I
definitely am an advocate of cutting and pasting, but not yet.
<html>
<head>
<title>My first page</title>
</head>
<body>
Hello world! This is my first web page!
</body>
</html>
Step 3
Save the Note Pad file to your new 'www' directory and name it hello.htm
By saving it with an extension of .htm (or you can use the .html extension) you
just made the file an "HTML" document that a browser (Like Navigator
or Internet Explorer) will recognize.
Step 4
Go to your favorite browser and select File, then Open, then Browse and locate
your new file c:\www\hello.htm and choose open and then OK. Click
here to see what the file should look like. Congratulations! You've
made your first HTML file. You can also use Windows Explorer to
browse to your www directory and you should be able to double click on the
hello.htm file and it will automatically open up in your browser.
What Did You Just Do?
Why did you need all of that extra code for those few words to show up?
I'll dissect the page for you.
<html> this tag opens the HTML document. HTML works with tags that open and close and that are nested.
<head> the <head></head> holds meta tags and sometimes JavaScripts we will get into those later.
<title>My first Page</title> the text in between the <title></title> tags is what shows up on the "favorites" list when someone bookmarks your site
</head> this ends the head section.
<body> Hello world! This is my first web page! this is the area your visitors see and where you put the content of your web pages.
</body> end of main area.
</html> end of the HTML document.
Way to go! If you got stuck on something or have
questions e-mail me. In the next lesson we'll begin to format the HTML. If
you want to be removed from this HTML tutorial mailing list, please send an
e-mail to nikolaisen@yahoo.com
with the subject HTML 101 UNSUBSCRIBE. These lessons will be posted at:
https://suzroot.tripod.com/myWebHelp/webDesign.htm
Suzanne