Some handy tips in HTML

Version 1.1
by Simple Simon §

Overview

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. This means you can have text, fancy text, pictures, music and heaps of other gizmos to make the Internet experience more enjoyable.

You can construct a whole web page in HTML. More importantly you can use some of HTML’s features to add to web pages that use HTML. This is especially useful if you want to modify the look of your postings on bulletin boards, chat rooms, forums etc.

Notation

Most HTML instructions are separated from the rest of the normal text by the use of the pointy brackets. In reality they aren’t point brackets but the mathematical less than sign < and greater than sign >. You can find these brackets using the SHIFT and comma key and using the shift and full-stop key.

Basic Commands

Next Line

To force the web browser to move to the next line then use

Example:

Once a jolly swagman

Camped by a billabong

Under the shade of a Coolabah tree

Next Paragraph

If you want to have a blank line between lines then there are two ways you can accomplish this. First is to put two statements in a row. The second is the easier to type statement. Most people use the statement as it is faster to type but it does have consequences if you want to do much fancier stuff later on.

Italics

To place text in italics, place a before the text you want italicised, and a when you want to go back to non italicised text.

Example:

Do you really want to do that?

Becomes

Do you really want to do that?

Bold

Bold works the same way as italics except that you use and instead. Note: you can have text in bold and italics if you use really

Size of writing

Before the text place the statement . Font sizes range from 1 to 7 with 7 being the biggest.

Colour

Before the text place the statement . Other colours like blue, red, yellow, lightgreen etc should work. There are more complicated ways to specify exact colours.

More Advanced Commands

Links

A link lets the user click on a word or collection of words, and should load the user’s web browser with a new page.

Example Number 1

<A HREF=”http://www.theage.com.au”>The Age Newspaper</A>

creates a link on the page that says The Age Newspaper, and if the user clicks on the link, it will take the user to the newspaper’s web site.

Example Number 2

<A HREF=”http://www.time.gov”>I really should buy a watch</A>

Occasionally, the author or owner of a web page will want you to get permission from him/her before you create a link.

It should be noted that if the link you create does not work, because the web page you have tried to link to is either down or disbanded, then you have created a broken link. I think there is an Internet law somewhere that states that every web site must have at least one broken link!

Pictures (including smiley faces)

To place a picture in your page you can use the following type of statement

Example:

Naturally if the site you are trying to get your picture from is down or disbanded, then the picture won’t show.

There are some good guidelines to follow when putting pictures in a web page:

1) If you think the page is going to be visited often (therefore the picture downloaded often) then it is best to put the picture on your own personal place on the Internet. Often when you open an account with an Internet Service Provider, they will give you some room on their server to store files like pictures. The smiley picture in the example above is stored in my own area of the Internet. There are two main benefits of this. First there is less likelihood of a broken link. Second, other web page owners won’t appreciate poorer performance because you have linked to their pictures. With very small pictures like smiley faces this is not too bad though.

2) Try to keep your pictures small in terms of bytes or kilobytes. Not everyone has a fast Internet connection and often people pay money based on the kilobytes they download.

Conclusion

This should be enough for you to make some fancy alterations to just plain text when using the Internet. However this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole world out there in HTML and web page design. If you enjoy doing some of the things mentioned above then you might want to look into it.

Good Luck!

Simple Simon