Introduction to HTML
What is an HTML File?
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HTML stands for Hyper
Text Markup Language
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An HTML file is a
text file containing small markup
tags
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The markup tags tell
the Web browser how to display
the page
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An HTML file must
have an htm or html file
extension
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An HTML file can be
created using a simple text editor
Do You Want to Try It?
If you are running
Windows, start Notepad.
If you are on a Mac start
SimpleText.
In OSX start TextEdit and
change the following preferences: Select (in
the preferences window) "Plain text" instead
of "Rich text" and then select "Ignore rich
text commands in HTML files". This is very
important because if you don't do this HTML
codes probably won't work.
Type in the following
text:
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of page</title>
</head>
<body>
This is my first homepage. <b>This text is bold</b>
</body>
</html>
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Save the file as "mypage.htm".
Start your Internet
browser. Select "Open" (or "Open Page") in
the File menu of your browser. A dialog box
will appear. Select "Browse" (or "Choose
File") and locate the HTML file you just
created - "mypage.htm" - select it and click
"Open". Now you should see an address in the
dialog box, for example "C:\MyDocuments\mypage.htm".
Click OK, and the browser will display the
page.
Example Explained
The first tag in your HTML
document is <html>. This tag tells your
browser that this is the start of an HTML
document. The last tag in your document is
</html>. This tag tells your browser that
this is the end of the HTML document.
The text between the
<head> tag and the </head> tag is header
information. Header information is not
displayed in the browser window.
The text between the
<title> tags is the title of your document.
The title is displayed in your browser's
caption.
The text between the
<body> tags is the text that will be
displayed in your browser.
The text between the <b>
and </b> tags will be displayed in a bold
font.
HTM
or HTML Extension?
When you save an HTML
file, you can use either the .htm or the
.html extension. We have used .htm in our
examples. It might be a bad habit inherited
from the past when some of the commonly used
software only allowed three letter
extensions.
With newer software we
think it will be perfectly safe to use
.html.
Note on HTML Editors:
You can easily edit HTML
files using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what
you get) editor like FrontPage, Claris Home
Page, or Adobe PageMill instead of writing
your markup tags in a plain text file.
But if you want to be a
skillful Web developer, we strongly
recommend that you use a plain text editor
to learn your primer HTML.
Frequently Asked
Questions
Q: After I have edited
an HTML file, I cannot view the result in my
browser. Why?
A:
Make sure that you have saved the file with
a proper name and extension like "c:\mypage.htm".
Also make sure that you use the same name
when you open the file in your browser.
Q: I have tried to edit
an HTML file but the changes don't show in
the browser. Why?
A: The browser
caches your pages so it doesn't have to read
the same page twice. When you have changed a
page, the browser doesn't know that. Use the
browser's refresh/reload button to force the
browser to read the edited page.
Q: What browser should
I use?
A: You can do all
the training with all of the common
browsers, like Internet Explorer, Mozilla,
Netscape, or Opera. However, some of the
examples in our advanced classes requires
the latest versions of the browsers.
Q: Does my computer
have to run Windows? What about a Mac?
A: You can do all
your training on a non-Windows computer like
a Mac. However, some of the examples in our
advanced classes requires a newer version of
Windows, like Windows 98 or Windows 2000.
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