-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Topic:

HTML: an Introduction

The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a simple markup language that describes the structure and behavior of Web documents. HTML is the standard language that all Web browsers are designed to understand and interpret. HTML is implemented using another larger markup language -- the Standard Generalized Markup Language, usually known by its acronym, SGML. To create great Web documents, this is as much as you need to know about SGML. You'll find an incredible wealth of information about this topic online, as the URLs that follow next can attest.

URLs:

Bare Bones Guide to HTML
HTML Quick Reference
A Beginner's Guide to HTML
Crash Course in HTML

W3E References:

HTML Tags
HTML
External Entities

Print References:

HTML TemplateMASTER CD. Erica Sadun and Christopher Watkins. Charles River Media. 1995. (ISBN 1-886801-06-1)

Detail:

Overview:

HTML is used to structure text, graphics and other resources on the Internet. HTML is one of the easiest computer-based languages to learn and use. Even so, creating sophisticated and interesting pages does take time and effort. HTML is simply plain text. An HTML document consists of two types of text:

content - the text or information to be displayed and presented on the client's browser.
markup - the tags that control the structure of the document. Inside an HTML document, the tags are set off by < and > symbols. The markup can also point to other resources such as graphics or encoded files.

Characters

Even though HTML is plain text, some characters are set aside for special use or are defined by entities. Those characters which have special functions in HTML are ampersand, less than, greater than, and quotes. These characters are used to define the HTML markup tags. In order to use these reserved characters in the content of your Web page, you will need to use their respective character or numerical entities.

character set used in HTML 2.0 is the ISO Latin-1 set [a subset of ISO-8859-1]. Other characters outside this charset will be added by HTML DTDs beyond the 2.0 specification, including character sets needed to represent foreign languages (even non-Roman alphabet languages).

However, many browsers do not yet support these added characters, so until these new specifications are made standard, we suggest that you use them sparingly.

Markup Tags

The core of HTML is its markup tags. These tags define the structure of a Web document. The DTD for HTML has been in development and revision for some time now. However, the Internet community has not sat idle waiting for these new standards to be defined.

Instead, new tags and formats are being developed and used almost daily. The HTML 2.0 DTD is the current standard that browsers support, but many browsers also include support for the emerging HTML standards, their own proprietary tags and extensions, and other external entities. When a browser encounters a tag that it doesn't recognize, one of the following things can happen:

the tag is ignored: in this case the tag does not cause an error and the document is displayed using the remaining defined tags. This may result in a poor layout and display of the content, but this is actually what the HTML standards have always decreed should happen.
the tag causes a browser error: in this case, the error causes the browser to halt document display or even may cause the browser to freeze (possibly forcing the user to reboot).
the tag is mis-interpreted: in this case, the browser interprets the tag as another valid tag type or as some other strange entity; usually, this results in poor document display or even browser lock-up.

As you write HTML documents you need to be aware that some useful tags are not universally accepted, nor are they sanctioned by the W3C.

If you're a Web surfer, we highly recommend obtaining a browser that is at least HTML 2.0 DTD compliant. If you use a browser that supports tables, HTML 3.0, Java and VRML you will get even more benefit from the Web.

We've listed many of the current HTML markup tags; please review each tag and its examples before implementing any of them.

Basic Document Structure

An HTML document must follow strict structural rules in order to be properly interpreted by a browser. The most basic structure for a Web page is:

<HTML> <HEAD>  <TITLE>Your Title</TITLE>  <BASE HREF="http://host/path/filename"> </HEAD> <BODY>The content
  <ADDRESS>  </ADDRESS> </BODY></HTML>

Using this structure and adding the relevant tags, creating a HTML document is simple. Before you rush into coding your first page, take a moment to decide what information you want in the page. Here is a list of some suggestions:

Your Name
A picture of yourself
Your mailing address
Your e-mail address
Your phone or fax number
Your company
Your hobbies and interests
Lists of your publications, creations or works
A personal hotlist
Your resume
Copyright notification
Revision dates

Once you've included what's relevant from this list of elements, everything else you can think of can be added easily to your own Web page thereafter.

Page Construction

In order to construct HTML documents, you will need a text editor or a specialized HTML editor. Learning to create HTML documents is done from looking at examples and trying them yourself. For an idea how a simple homepage might appear, take a look at: the page and its code.

Creating a Web page is very simple. Follow these steps and you will have created your first HTML document.

Start a new document with the basic document structure as shown above.
Add in the content, information and tags you need and want. Be sure to look through the proper syntax for each tag. You can borrow ideas from other Web documents, but be careful not to plagiarize.
Save the file as a plain text file with the extension ".htm" (for DOS and Windows 3.x) or ".html" (for platforms that can handle longer file names, like Macintosh, Win95, OS/2, UNIX, Windows NT, etc.). The extension is very important, because this is what tells a Web browser to interpret the file as HTML and not just plain text.

Congratulations! You are now a Web author!

From here on out, time and practice will be required to master the art of Web page creation. Examine and experiment with other Web pages to get new ideas, or to learn about design and layout approaches that you find appealing. If you can think of a concept, you can probably find a way to deliver that concept on a Web page.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

E-Mail: The World Wide Web Encyclopedia at wwwe@tab.com
E-Mail: Charles River Media at chrivmedia@aol.com
Copyright 1996 Charles River Media. All rights reserved.
Text - Copyright © 1995, 1996 - James Michael Stewart & Ed Tittel.
Web Layout - Copyright © 1995, 1996 - LANWrights & IMPACT Online.
Revised -- February 20th, 1996