Back to Basics: Beginners HTML

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amanda's picture



Well, what an interesting topic. To be honest I find it quite difficult to remember all of these sorts of things. But I am going to attempt to write about what I've learnt about HTML so far and how I 'think' it works.

The other day Tim gave me a very basic lesson on how to go about creating a website. Here goes what I can remember from that lesson.

HTML...................................................... HTML......................................HTML..................................................

For starters, html stands for "Hyper Text Mark-up Language".  Praise the Lord for google (couldn't remember what the m part stands for).

So what is that? hyper text mark-up language? 

Fantastic definition for HTML is found at this site - http://www.webdeveloper.com/html/beginners_html.html
It told me this.....

"What does HTML stand for? What is it?
HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is a language that uses text and a defined set of commands (known as tags) to create most of what you see on a World Wide Web page. The tags can serve two distinct functions: They either "tell" the text how to behave (bold, italic, etc.), or make the text act as a command to insert a link, picture, or sound onto your page."

A basic web page, will look something like this....

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> here write whatever your title is </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1> here you write the heading for whatever content you put in the body of the page </H1>
<P> here you write the content of your page </P>
<P> this is a new paragraph, where you can write more content for the page </P>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Ok, all the HTML codes are in these <>. They just are.
The top is <HTML>, not sure exactly why. I guess because it's starting it all, using HTML. So you tell it that, maybe?
Then, you have the <HEAD> of the page, which is just the head of the page! And within that you have the <TITLE>, the title is just the title of your page. So inside the title codes, you write the title. See how every tag you open, after the content, then closes with the same tag except with a / in it? Well the / just indicates that you've finished writing that information and you're closing it. To go on to open the next section. Which is the <BODY>.... and that text can be different sizes, using the command <H1> or H something else for a different size. And in the body you write the main content of your page!  If your page is about dogs, you will write your information or story about dogs there. And you naturally write it out in paragraphs. However you can't just press enter and write on the next line. Because when you load it, it will just all be in the same paragraph. You have to tell it you want to write the next bit in a new paragraph, but it doesn't understand our language, which is pressing enter, you have to instead say "<P>".  And like I said, the start of your paragraph will be <P> and to close it </P>. And you just repeat that if you want multiple paragraphs. Then, when you are finished the main content of your page. You close the body </BODY>. And then close the whole thing, with </HTML>.

So far, that's all I can really understand about how HTML works. I know there are commands for italics, <i>, and bold <b>, and different colours. And of course, at the end of whatever section you want to be in bold you would then close it with </b>, and continue with whatever you're writing. Simple enough.

Now, if any of that made sense to anyone, please tell me. It would make me really happy. But I guess you can also tell me everything I've done wrong. The Bible does say that it is wise to accept correction, or something.


Thanks for reading


aManda

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Matt's picture

Hi Amanda, It looks like you

Hi Amanda,

It looks like you are off to a great start! You are mostly right.

Yes, the and tags are used to tell the browser that it is at the start and end of a HTML document.

The

tags, as you indicated in the example are used to tell the browser that it is reading a heading. The header tags have 6 different sizes from the above, through to

, these sizes can be manipulated to be any size you want though. Don't use these tags just to change the font size of general text though. There are other, more correct ways to do that.

The only other thing really is that to comply with the latest web standards, use lowercase tags rather than uppercase. Aside from that, you've got the basics pretty well down pat.

Shazan's picture

Love this concept. Although

Love this concept. Although I've been doing "stuff" on the internet for a couple of years, I have not developed as good a skill level as I'd like. In fact, it's quite basic, I think. So I love to find sights like yours that help with exactly that....the basics. I'll be back to check out some more.
Cheers!!
Shazan

Jono's picture

well to be honest i didn't

well to be honest i didn't read all of it - first and last paragraphs like i always did in Uni, but great to see that God is a part of your life even when you are writing about html(Herbie Took My Lunch)
keep it real
Jono
Keep Looking Up

amanda's picture

hehe, thanks Jono

hehe, thanks Jono