This lesson introduces the Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML), which instructs Web browsers how to produce
formatted Web pages.
The
Hypertext Markup Language
HTML formats text.
HTML inserts format instructions into plain text documents.
HTML reminds Web browsers where to take paragraph breaks,
when to change font attributes, where to insert a picture,
etc. These format instructions are called HTML tags.
Tags provide the
information needed by your Web browser to correctly
set up a Web page. HTML tags are always surrounded
by angle brackets. Some contain forward slashes. Others
contain additional arguments or options. For example,
<P>, </BLOCKQUOTE>,
and <A HREF="MYDOC.HTML"> are all valid HTML tags.
Matching tags
such as <PRE>
and </PRE>
are called "containers" and surround the information
they format. The closing tag is always prefixed with
a forward slash.
HTML tag attributes. Some HTML tags offer tag
attributes. Tag attributes are options that affect
or enhance the way the tag displays content on screen.
Attributes are embedded into the open tag. The image
tag <IMG SRC="filename">
inserts an image on a Web page. The image tag has
several HTML attributes,
SRC, HEIGHT,
WIDTH,
BORDER and ALT.
Each attribute has a value; consider the following:
<IMG SRC="MYPIC.GIF"
WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 BORDER=0 ALT=Alternative Text>
Each attribute offers a value for that specific attribute.
You will learn more about attributes throughout the
lesson sets on this CD-ROM.
Tags ignore
carriage returns. As long as individual words
are not broken apart, HTML tags are insensitive to
carriage returns. The tag
<IMG SRC="MYPIC.GIF" HEIGHT=40 WIDTH=20 BORDER=3 ALT=Alternative text>
can be written
on several lines as
<IMG
SRC="MYPIC.GIF"
HEIGHT=40
WIDTH=20
BORDER=3
ALT=Alternative text>
without any loss
of formatting information.
The process of
Creating your first html document and previewing it
in Internet Explorer.