HTML Basics

HTML Basics
Welcome to HTML Basics. This workshop leads you through the basics of Hyper Text Markup Language
(HTML). HTML is the building block for web pages. You will learn to use HTML to author an HTML page
to display in a web browser.
Objectives:
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
Use a text editor to author an HTML document.
Be able to use basic tags to denote paragraphs, emphasis or special type.
Create hyperlinks to other documents.
Create an email link.
Add images to your document.
Use a table for layout.
Apply colors to your HTML document.
Prerequisites:
You will need a text editor, such as Notepad and an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or
Google Chrome.
Q: What is Notepad and where do I get it?
A: Notepad is the default Windows text editor. On most Windows systems, click your Start
button and choose Programs then Accessories. It should be a little blue notebook.
Mac Users: SimpleText is the default text editor on the Mac. In OSX use TextEdit and change
the following preferences: Select (in the preferences window) Plain text instead of Rich text and
then select Ignore rich text commands in HTML files. This is very important because if you don't
do this HTML codes probably won't work.
One thing you should avoid using is a word processor (like Microsoft Word) for authoring your HTML
documents.
What is an html File?
HTML is a format that tells a computer how to display a web page. The documents themselves are
plain text files with special "tags" or codes that a web browser uses to interpret and display
information on your computer screen.
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
An HTML file is a text file containing small markup tags
The markup tags tell the Web browser how to display the page
An HTML file must have an htm or html file extension
Try It?
Open your text editor and type the following text:
<ht ml >
<head>
<t i t l e>My Fi r st Webpage</ t i t l e>
</ head>
<body>
Thi s i s my f i r st homepage. <b>Thi s t ext i s bol d</ b>
</ body>
</ ht ml >
Save the file as mypage.html. Start your Internet browser. Select Open (or Open Page) in the File
menu of your browser. A dialog box will appear. Select Browse (or Choose File) and locate the html
file you just created - mypage.html - select it and click Open. Now you should see an address in the
dialog box, for example C:\MyDocuments\mypage.html. Click OK, and the browser will display the
page. To view how the page should look, visit this web page:
http://usindh.edu.pk/kamran/html/mypage.html
Example Explained
What you just made is a skeleton html document. This is the minimum required information for a web
document and all web documents should contain these basic components. The first tag in your html
document is <ht ml >. This tag tells your browser that this is the start of an html document. The last
tag in your document is </ ht ml >. This tag tells your browser that this is the end of the html
document.
The text between the <head> tag and the </ head> tag is header information. Header information is not
displayed in the browser window.
The text between the <t i t l e> tags is the title of your document. The <t i t l e> tag is used to uniquely
identify each document and is also displayed in the title bar of the browser window.
The text between the <body> tags is the text that will be displayed in your browser.
The text between the <b> and </ b> tags will be displayed in a bold font.
HTM or HTML Extension?
When you save an HTML file, you can use either the .htm or the .html extension. The .htm extension
comes from the past when some of the commonly used software only allowed three letter extensions.
It is perfectly safe to use either .html or .htm, but be consistent. mypage.htm and mypage.html are
treated as different files by the browser.
How to View HTML Source
A good way to learn HTML is to look at how other people have coded their html pages. To find out,
simply click on the View option in your browsers toolbar and select Source or Page Source. This will
open a window that shows you the actual HTML of the page. Go ahead and view the source html for
this page.
HTML Tags
What are HTML tags?
HTML tags are used to mark-up HTML elements
HTML tags are surrounded by the two characters < and >
The surrounding characters are called angle brackets
HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b>
The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag
The text between the start and end tags is the element content
HTML tags are not case sensitive, <b> means the same as <B>
Logical vs. Physical Tags
In HTML there are both logical tags and physical tags. Logical tags are designed to describe (to the
browser) the enclosed text's meaning. An example of a logical tag is the <st r ong> </ st r ong> tag. By
placing text in between these tags you are telling the browser that the text has some greater
importance. By default all browsers make the text appear bold when in between the <st r ong> and
</ st r ong> tags.
Physical tags on the other hand provide specific instructions on how to display the text they enclose.
Examples of physical tags include:
<b>: Makes the text bold.
<bi g>: Makes the text usually one size bigger than what's around it.
<i >: Makes text italic.
Physical tags were invented to add style to HTML pages because style sheets were not around, though
the original intention of HTML was to not have physical tags. Rather than use physical tags to style
your HTML pages, you should use style sheets.
HTML Elements
Remember the HTML example from the previous page:
<ht ml >
<head>
</ head>
<body>
Thi s i s my f i r st homepage. <b>Thi s t ext i s bol d</ b>
</ body>
</ ht ml >
This is an HTML element:
<b>This text is bold</ b>
The HTML element begins with a start tag: <b>
The content of the HTML element is: This text is bold
The HTML element ends with an end tag: </ b>
The purpose of the <b> tag is to define an HTML element that should be displayed as bold.
This is also an HTML element:
<body>
Thi s i s my f i r st homepage. <b>This text is bold</ b>
</ body>
This HTML element starts with the start tag <body>, and ends with the end tag </ body>. The purpose
of the <body> tag is to define the HTML element that contains the body of the HTML document.
Nested Tags
You may have noticed in the example above, the <body> tag also contains other tags, like the <b> tab.
When you enclose an element in with multiple tags, the last tag opened should be the first tag closed.
For example:
<p><b><em>This is NOT the proper way to close nested tags. </ p></ em></ b>
<p><b><em>This is the proper way to close nested tags. </ em></ b></ p>
Note: It doesn't matter which tag is first, but they must be closed in the proper order.
Why Use Lowercase Tags?
You may notice we've used lowercase tags even though I said that HTML tags are not case sensitive.
<B> means the same as <b>. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the group responsible for
developing web standards, recommends lowercase tags in their HTML 4 recommendation, and XHTML
(the next generation HTML) requires lowercase tags.
Tag Attributes
Tags can have attributes. Attributes can provide additional information about the HTML elements on
your page. The <t ag> tells the browser to do something, while the attribute tells the browser how to
do it. For instance, if we add the bgcolor attribute, we can tell the browser that the background color
of your page should be blue, like this: <body bgcol or =" bl ue" >.
This tag defines an HTML table: <t abl e>. With an added border attribute, you can tell the browser that
the table should have no borders: <t abl e bor der =" 0" >. Attributes always come in name/value pairs
like this: name="value". Attributes are always added to the start tag of an HTML element and the
value is surrounded by quotes.
Quote Styles, "red" or 'red'?
Attribute values should always be enclosed in quotes. Double style quotes are the most common, but
single style quotes are also allowed. In some rare situations, like when the attribute value itself
contains quotes, it is necessary to use single quotes:
name='George "machine Gun" Kelly'
Note: Some tags we will discuss are deprecated, meaning the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) the governing body that sets HTML, XML, CSS, and other technical standards decided
those tags and attributes are marked for deletion in future versions of HTML and XHTML.
Browsers should continue to support deprecated tags and attributes, but eventually these tags
are likely to become obsolete and so future support cannot be guaranteed.
For a complete list of tags, visit W3C.org.
Basic HTML Tags
The most important tags in HTML are tags that define headings, paragraphs and line breaks.
Basic HTML Tags
Tag Description
<html> Defines an HTML document
<body> Defines the document's body
<h1> to <h6> Defines header 1 to header 6
<p> Defines a paragraph
<br> Inserts a single line break
<hr> Defines a horizontal rule

<p><img src="graphics/chef.gif" width="130" height="101" alt="Smiling Happy Chef"
align="center"></p>
<p align="center">This is my Chef</p>
</body>
</html>
Save your page as mypage5.html and view it in your browser. To see how your page should look
Tables
Tables are defined with the <t abl e> tag. A table is divided into rows (with the <t r > tag), and each row
is divided into data cells (with the <t d> tag). The letters td stands for table data, which is the content
of a data cell. A data cell can contain text, images, lists, paragraphs, forms, horizontal rules, tables,
etc.
<t abl e>
<t r >
<t d>r ow 1, cel l 1</ t d>
</ t r >
<t r >
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
row 1, cell 1 row 1, cell 2
Tables and the Border Attribute
To display a table with borders, you will use the border attribute.
<t abl e bor der =" 1" >
<t r >
<t d>Row 1, cel l 1</ t d>
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
and....
<t r >
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
Open up your text editor. Type in your <ht ml >, <head> and <body> tags. From here on I will only be
writing what goes between the <body> tags. Type in the following:
<t r >
<t d>Tabl es can be used t o l ayout i nf or mat i on</ t d>
<t d> <i mg sr c=" ht t p: / / pr of devt r ai n. aust i ncc. edu/ ht ml / gr aphi cs/ chef . gi f " >
</ t d>
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
Save your page as mytable1.html and view it in your browser. To see how your page should look
visit this web page: http://usindh.edu.pk/kamran/html/mytable1.html
Headings in a Table
Headings in a table are defined with the <t h> tag.
This code Would Display
<t r >
<t h>Headi ng</ t h>
<t h>Anot her Headi ng</ t h>
</ t r >
<t r >
</ t r >
<t r >
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
Heading Another Heading
Cell Padding and Spacing
The <t abl e> tag has two attributes known as cellspacing and cellpadding. Here is a table example
without these properties. These properties may be used separately or together.
<t r >
<t d>some t ext </ t d>
</ t r >
<t r >
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
some text some text
some text some text
Cellspacing is the pixel width between the individual data cells in the table (The thickness of the lines
making the table grid). The default is zero. If the border is set at 0, the cellspacing lines will be
invisible.
<t abl e bor der =" 1" cel l spaci ng=" 5" >
<t r >
</ t r ><t r >
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
some text some text
some text some text
Cellpadding is the pixel space between the cell contents and the cell border. The default for this
property is also zero. This feature is not used often, but sometimes comes in handy when you have
your borders turned on and you want the contents to be away from the border a bit for easy viewing.
Cellpadding is invisible, even with the border property turned on. Cellpadding can be handled in a style
sheet.
<t abl e bor der =" 1" cel l paddi ng=" 10" >
<t r >
</ t r ><t r >
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
some text some text
some text some text
Table Tags
Tag Description
<table> Defines a table
<th> Defines a table header
<tr> Defines a table row
<td> Defines a table cell
<caption> Defines a table caption
<colgroup> Defines groups of table columns
<col> Defines the attribute values for one or more columns in a table
Table Size
Table Width
The width attribute can be used to define the width of your table. It can be defined as a fixed width or
a relative width. A fixed table width is one where the width of the table is specified in pixels. For
example, this code, <t abl e wi dt h=" 550" >, will produce a table that is 550 pixels wide. A relative table
width is specified as a percentage of the width of the visitor's viewing window. Hence this code, <t abl e
wi dt h=" 80%" >, will produce a table that occupies 80 percent of the screen.
This table width is 250 pixels
This table width is 50%
There are arguments in favor of giving your tables a relative width because such table widths yield
pages that work regardless of the visitor's screen resolution. For example, a table width of 100% will
always span the entire width of the browser window whether the visitor has a 800x600 display or a
1024x768 display (etc). Your visitor never needs to scroll horizontally to read your page, something
that is regarded by most people as being very annoying.
HTML Layout - Using Tables
One very common practice with HTML, is to
use HTML tables to format the layout of an
HTML page.
A part of this page is formatted with two
columns. As you can see on this page, there
is a left column and a right column.
This text is displayed in the left column.
An HTML <table> is used to divide a part of
this Web page into two columns.
The trick is to use a table without borders,
and maybe a little extra cell-padding.
No matter how much text you add to this
page, it will stay inside its column borders.
Try It Out!
Let's put everything you've learned together to create a simple page. Open your text editor and type
the following text:
<ht ml >
<head>
<t i t l e>My Fi r st Web Page </ t i t l e>
</ head>
<body>
<t abl e wi dt h=" 90%" cel l paddi ng=" 5" cel l spaci ng=" 0" >
<t r bgcol or =" #EDDD9E" >
<t d wi dt h=" 200" val i gn=" t op" ><i mg sr c=" gr aphi cs/ cont act . gi f " wi dt h=" 100"
hei ght =" 100" ></ t d>
<t d val i gn=" t op" ><h1 al i gn=" r i ght " >J anet Doeson</ h1>
<h3 al i gn=" r i ght " >Techni cal Speci al i st </ h3></ t d>
</ t r >
<t r >
<t d wi dt h=" 200" >
<h3>Menu</ h3>
<ul >
<l i ><a hr ef =" home. ht ml " >Home</ a></ l i >
<l i > <a hr ef =" f aq. ht ml " >FAQ</ a></ l i >
<l i > <a hr ef =" cont act . ht ml " >Cont act </ a></ l i >
<l i > <a hr ef =" ht t p: / / www. aust i ncc. edu" >Li nks</ a> </ l i >
</ ul ></ t d>
<t d val i gn=" t op" ><h2 al i gn=" cent er " >Wel come! </ h2>
<p>Wel come t o my f i r st webpage. I cr eat ed t hi s webpage wi t hout t he assi st ance of a
webpage edi t or . J ust my l i t t l e t ext edi t or and a keen under st andi ng of ht ml . </ p>
<p>Look ar ound. Not i ce I ' mabl e t o use par agr aphs, l i st s and headi ngs. You may not
be abl e t o t el l , but t he l ayout i s done wi t h a t abl e. I ' mver y cl ever . </ p>
<bl ockquot e>
<p>I al ways want ed t o be somebody, but now I r eal i ze I shoul d have been mor e
speci f i c. </ p>
<ci t e>Li l y Toml i n </ ci t e> </ bl ockquot e> </ t d>
</ t r >
</ t abl e>
<hr wi dt h=" 90%" al i gn=" l ef t " >
<addr ess>
J anet Doeson<br >
Techni cal Speci al i st <br >
512. 555. 5555
</ addr ess>
<p>Cont act me at <a hr ef =" mai l t o: j doeson@acme. com" >j doeson@acme. com</ a> </ p>
</ body>
</ ht ml >
Save your page as mytable2.html and view it in your browser. To see how your page should look
visit this web page: http://usindh.edu.pk/kamran/html/mytable2.html
I have indented some of the HTML code in the above example. Indenting the code can make your
HTML document easier to read.
Create Your Own Page
Its time to create your own page. Use your text editor to create a page which contains the following:
the required HTML page codes
link to another web page
an email link
a picture/graphic
a list of information
Save the file as xyhtml_basics.html where xy is your initials. Email the file to [email protected]

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