Web Programming
The most common language used to create webpages is called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). This chapter introduces you to the basics of HTML. After you have completed this chapter you should have a general understanding of what HTML is and what it does.
Working with HTML Tags
HTML is built around elements (also referred to as tags). Essentially they are formatting instructions that are embedded into a document containing text. Elements are distinguished from the surrounding text by angle brackets ( < and > ). Most elements are used in pairs - an opening element, followed by the text to which the formatting should apply, and then a closing element. The opening and closing elements differ from one another by a slash (/) immediately after the < angle bracket of the closing element. The following example demonstrates the formatting of a string of text to bold:
<b>This text is displayed as bold,</b> while this text is not.
When displayed in a browser, the line of HTML code above would display the text as follows:
This text is displayed as bold, while this text is not.
There are many elements in HTML, each of which had their own specific purpose. A complete list of HTML elements along with their description is available in the Language Reference section of this help file.
Working with HTML Documents
You are now ready to create your first webpage. The first thing you need to do when you start the BestAddress HTML Editor is to create a new HTML document. To create a new HTML document, choose New from the File menu. In the dialog box that appears, select a template, or otherwise choose Blank Document and click OK. A new HTML document is created for you ready to be edited.
You will notice that the new document already contains a number of elements. These form the basic structure of your webpage. At present, the document will look something like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>Enter_Title_Here</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Each element has a specific role in setting up the webpage.
The first line of code contains a <html> element. This tells the browser that the document it is dealing with is a HTML document. You will notice that the last element in the document also contains the appropriate ending tag </html> to tell the browser that it is the end of the HTML document.
On the next line, we find the <head> element. This defines the header of the page. The header serves as the page's introduction. Browsers use the it to find information about the page. The header contains the <title> and </title> elements. The text between the title elements is usually displayed in the title bar of the browser window. The BestAddress HTML Editor automatically adds Enter_Title_Here between the title elements. You should replace this text with your own title. The title should be as brief as possible, yet should provide a good description on webpage's purpose.
Finally, we find the <body> and </body> elements. It is between these that you place the contents of your webpage.
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