Basic HTML

The Basics
HTML



Background		Content vs. Tags HTML consists primarily of content and tags. The content is what you're reading right now. You can't see the tags in your browser, but they are controlling how things are viewed on the screen. (There can also be Javascript code contained in HTML files, but we'll get to that later.) Why Bother Learning HTML? Even though there are many graphical-based web page designing tools available now, unless you have a fairly solid understanding of HTML, your pages will start doing weird things. When that happens, often the only way to fix things is by looking at the HTML code and fixing it by hand, if necessary. In FrontPage 98, clicking on the HTML tab at the bottom of the screen will allow you to edit the HTML directly.
The Examples section contains links to good and bad pages.		Learn by Observing... In most browsers, you can look at the actual HTML code of the page you're viewing as you surf the web by doing View Source (or some variation on that command, usually under the View menu). This is a great thing, because it allows you to see just how a page was put together. As you are learning HTML and browsing the web, when you see a page you like, look at the source. This alone will help you learn how to do cool things with HTML.
While browsing using Netscape or Internet Explorer, right-click and choose "View Source" to see the HTML for the current page.		...and Reproducing What You Like While you shouldn't copy actual images or content (unless given permission), there's nothing wrong with copying the HTML of a page into your own document and then editing it to get a similar format. For example, though the words and the images on this page are protected by copyright laws, the layout is not, and you can recreate this layout in your own pages by copying and modifying the HTML.



A Final Note		New HTML tags are being added all the time now, so some tags that the latest version of Netscape recognizes weren't even in existence with older versions. When a browser encounters a tag it doesn't know about, it simply ignores it. This is why it's important to check your pages in older browsers whenever possible to make sure they'll still make sense (even if they're not pretty).



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