Linda's Practice Page
Linda,
This is a simple web page with just the basic necessary code. Following is an explanation of each code on this page. You won't see the code when you open the page in a browser. To view and edit the code on this page you will need to open it in a program that reads .html files.
Notice that there is an html in brackets at the top of the page and another at the bottom of the page preceded by a forward slash. These are required at the start and end of the web page. You'll find that most html tags require a closing tag which is identical except for a forward slash that must be included at the beginning of the closing tag.
The next required tag is the head tag. The only item that goes between the head tags are the title tags. The title of your web page goes within the title tags. You won't see this title on your web page, but you will see it on the top bar of your browser. Next is the required body tag. Within the body tags you can put either a bgcolor tag for the background color or a background tag if you are using a graphic for the background. The remaining elements in the body tag are for the color of the text, links, and visited links. The closing body tag goes at the end of the page just before the closing html tag.
On this page I used the blockquote tags to make a margin on the page for the text. You can do this using tables also. Notice the size of the left and right margins when using the tag three times. The more tags the larger the margin. Then you need to add the same number of closing tags at the bottom of the page. When you view your web page in WebEdit, you will only see the left margin working. This is because the program doesn't recognize some of the newer tags. You will see both margins when you view it in your browser on or off the internet.
The P tag you see throughout this page is the paragraph tag. It makes a double space before the next paragraph. If you just want to go to the next line you would use a br tag which stands for line break. You'll notice at the top and bottom of the page the $nbsp; code between the P tags. I use this when I want to triple space because you can't use two P tags in a row and the code will leave a blank space so then I can use the P tag again. P tags don't require closing tags. You can also use the code to indent the first line of your paragraph. I use the code four times spacing in between each one to make an indent. This code doesn't require brackets or a closing tag because it's not a tag. It's a trick code to make the browser do what you want it to.
I made you a title real quick for this page so I can show you the tags to use. I used center tags to center the title on the page. I used font tags to make the type larger. Your title is size 5. The font size numbers so from 1 being the smallest and up. Size three is standard size text like the text in this paragraph. You don't have to use font size tags for standard size text. I also used the font color tag in your title to change the color of the title text. The color tag like the ones in your body tag require a code to determine the color enclosed in "" and must start with a #. I'll explain later how to get the color codes. When you use two elements in your font tag such as size and color you still only need one simple font closing tag at the end of the text.
Following are a couple of links to show you how your body tag determines the color of the link text and visited link text as well as the code for a link to a web page and a link to an e-mail address. The code to make a link to a web page is an A followed by a space then href followed by an equals sign. Then you put the web address next with no spaces before and enclose it in "" and brackets should enclose all of it. Whatever you type next is what will be the text that the viewer can click on to go to that page. At the end of the text you put the closing link tag which is the A preceeded by a forward slash. Following is a link to this web page. A link to an e-mail address is exactly the same except you add a mailto followed by a colon right before you type the e-mail address. Below is also a link to my e-mail address.
On the next page I will explain the various uses of tables. I will also show you the tags to insert graphics into your web pages and other tags you will be using. I hope I haven't made this more confusing for you. This page is just a brief overview and I can explain the tags discussed here in more debth in a regular text file where I can write the actual codes without confusing the browser.