So what do you think? Great idea, eh? I'm just going to say some words before starting. First please do not take this guide because I made it and it took me a lot of hours of hard work. If you want to take it for your own use or just to print it ... go ahead! But don'ttake it to put it on another site! Ok? Please respect my work and wishes! Thank you very much! Now that we cleared that up let's make the best sailor moon websiteever !
A Basic Guide to HTML
HTML or "Hyper Text Markup Language" is the instruction language used to create web pages. It is not a programming language as it does not create an individual program. Rather, it gives instructions to an existing program, in this case your Internet Browser (Netscape Navigator), on how to handle and display information.
This document will introduce you to the very basics of HTML which will allow you to design and create personal web pages. Once you have mastered these basics, you can begin experimenting with other components for web pages including animation, games and sound.
Frequently Used Terms
Before we get started it will be helpful to go over a few terms that will come up.
TAG Is the individual code or term that instructs the Browser to do something. *These are always enclosed in < > (angle brackets) and capitalized.
ATTRIBUTEIs the individual code or term that is inserted inside a tag to control specific parts of the tag
instruction.
E.g. <BODY TEXT="blue"> ...</Body>
BROWSER The program that is used to view pages on the internet. E.g. Netscape" Navigator.
URL Means "Uniform Resource Locator" and is a fancy way of saying an address or location for a
document on the internet. They usually look like the following: http://www.mypage.com
HTTP Means "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol" You will notice that the URL begins with this. Basically
it refers to the way in which the information is transferred from the world wide web to your
computer .
WWW It is the "world wide web". Think of it as a giant library that holds all the pages of information
that people create from across the world.
How to Get Started
One of the best ways to learn and understand HTML is to see it in action. To do this we will look at a copy of the HTML code and the final document at the same time. This will allow you to compare the two and better understand what a particular <TAG> does.
Once you get a handle on the basics, you can learn a great deal about advanced web page design by viewing the HTML code for your favourite web sites. To do this you simply open the web site and wait for it to fully load. In your browser, (for our case we will be using Netscape Navigator so the instructions might be slightly different if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer.)click on the VIEW menu and then click on DOCUMENT SOURCE. Another window will open in your browser displaying the HTML code for that particular page.
Don't be discouraged if you don't understand it. With some of the more advanced pages, the designers use advanced tags that refer to mini programs which run inside the page (that's how they get the games on there) and in some cases they do not write the HTML code, but rather use a design software similar to a desktop publishing program. In this case the HTML code will be very different from the final view. Once you have found a page and opened the HTML document source, compare the two and see if you can figure out which Tag refers to which item on the final page. It's usually helpful to print a copy of the Document Source Information.
Structure of Tags
HTML is not overly complex concerning the input information, but as with any language, there are a few rules that are carved in stone and must be followed.
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All tags must be enclosed in angle brackets. <TAG>
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HTML tags are usually written in CAPITAL LETTERS. This makes it easy
to distinguish the tags from the text that will appear on the page and also allows you to find your place quickly.
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Every HTML document must begin with the <HTML> tag and end with the </HTML> tag.
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Some tags are used in pairs while others are not. Paired tags must enclose the specific instruction in your document. They open with <TAG> and close by adding a forward slash just after the first angle bracket, </TAG>. This is how you know that the particular instruction is complete. <HTML>...</HTML> is an example of a paired tag. This will be explained in greater detail in the upcoming section.
