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HTML Basics -- How To Start Building A Web Page

Web pages are made up of a programming language called HTML (hypertext mark-up language). This happened because there were so many different operating systems and web browsers that a uniform language had to be developed, so that all systems could read the language and produce a web page that would look similar to them all.

So let's start with the basics of building one of these pages. If you are using a PC you can start in a text editor such as WordPad (not Word) or for the Mac SimpleText.

At the top of your text page type <HTML> This will tell the browser that it is looking at a HTML document notice and that it is contained between two brackets <> All HTML is contained between these types of brackets when you are typing a page. Next type <TITLE> (it doesn't need to be in capitals - this just makes it easier to see). After the title 'Tag' type title again only this time add a forward slash </TITLE> this tells the browser that the tag is closed.

Next comes your 'body' tags, open tag <BODY> and closed tag </BODY> Inside these are where you are going to type the text of your web page. Then to finish the basic layout add a closing HTML tag </HTML> to tell the browser the page is finished.

So your text page should now look something like the following:

<HTML>
<TITLE></TITLE>
<BODY>

</BODY>
</HTML>

Now start to fill in some of the blanks:

<HTML>
<TITLE>My Web Page</TITLE>
<BODY>
This is my first web page.
If this works it is a miracle!
</BODY>
</HTML>

Now comes the magic. Save your document, but choose 'save as'. Save it in plain text format something like 'webpage' but after webpage add .html (that is DOT html don't forget the dot). This is telling your system to save it as an HTML document.

Then go to your hard drive and find your document 'webpage' which should now look like an HTML document. If it looks like a text file then you need to save it again making sure you add the .html extension.

Open your new html document (double click) and your Internet browser will spring into action. Lo and behold you should see your first web page, notice the title at the top of the page is the title you chose and your text is in the 'body' of the document. Yes this is a miracle!

Now comes an even bigger miracle. Staying on your web page go to the tool bar and choose 'View' then 'Source' you will then be presented with your text file once again. From here you will be able to alter your title and the body text as much as you like, after doing so you must always choose 'Save' in your text editor.

Once you have saved your changes you will need to reload/refresh your browser window to view the changes. Do this from the web page as you would normally refresh a page and you will see your alterations take effect.

OK so that is the basics of a web page a little plain perhaps but a good start. The rest? Well that is for another article.


Publisher: http://nnh.co.uk
Copyright © NNH, nnh.co.uk
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