Understanding HTML

Learning HTML

Basically HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the programming language used for creating internet websites. It is like our ever popular VB Code, however, just a bit more complicated. Once I sat down and took the time to learn HTML it made understanding and learning VB Code alot simplier for me. I thought some of you might benefit from this, so here is some basics for learning and understanding how HTML works.

First you need a word editing program to write your HTML documents in, such as Notepad or Wordpad which comes standard with any Windows OS, or you can use a program specifically designed to create HTML documents.

Ok, first thing you need to know is that in order for your HTML documents to open you need to save them with this file extension ".htm"... This will open your created ".htm" file in your default browser.

There are 4 basic tags you need to know..........

HTML - the begining and the end tag for your work
HEAD-this holds your documents header information and is not seen by the web browser
TITLE-this is the title of your document
BODY-this is where you will put everything you wish to see
(text,links,graphics,etc)

Before proceeding any further, I would like to note that when writing HTML codes/tags it is not case sensitive, in other words you can write it in CAPS or lower case.....whichever is more easier for you to read.

Now, to write a basic HTML document this is how it should look....note the < > brackets that enclose the tags...these are used in the tags to interupt what is to be displayed.

NOTE: For the sake of these examples, I have replaced the "<" and ">" brackets with the "(" and ")" brackets. The reason for this is that if the "< >" brackets are used, the actual interrupted HTML tags would be displayed instead of the examples.

EXAMPLE:

(HTML)
(HEAD)
(TITLE)UniteTheCows(/TITLE)

(NOTE: Notice the "/" included in the last part of the tag. This signifies the ending point of the tag.)

(/HEAD)
(BODY)
Put all your information here
(/BODY)
(/HTML)
Will look like this:
Put all your information here

Basically, thats all there is to HTML besides the tags you can add to make various changes to the body of your document which I have included below:

Get blank lines and spaces to appear (BR)
EX. (BODY)
Unite (BR) The(BR)Cows
(/BODY)

Start a new line and skip a line (P)
EX. (BODY)
Unite (P) The (P) Cows
(/BODY)

Insert a horizontal line (HR)
EX. (BODY)
Unite (HR) The Cows
(/BODY)

Center words on a line (CENTER)
EX. (BODY)
(CENTER) UniteTheCows (/CENTER)
(/BODY)

To make your text appear BOLD (B)
EX. (BODY)
(B) unitethecows (/B)
(/BODY)
unitethecows
Note: By leaving out (/B) will make all your text appear as BOLD

To make your text ITALIC (I)

To make your text UNDERLINED (U)

Also, one other important factor with using different HTML tags for different effects is to make sure you "NEST" them correctly. In other words you must balance out each pair of tags, making sure not to overlap them.
For example,

Incorrect:
(B)
(I)
(/B)
(/I)
Correct:
(B)
(I)
(/I)
(/B)

Should look something like this:
(CENTER)(B)(I)(U) unitethecows(/U)(/I)(/B)(/CENTER)

Also, you can change the way the font looks:

Change the font size (FONT)
Ex. (FONT size="10") unitethecows (/FONT)
unitethecows

Change the font face attribute
(FONT face="ARIAL") unitethecows (/font)
unitethecows

Change the color
(FONT color="GREEN")unitethecows(/FONT)
unitethecows

Applying all three should look like this:
(FONT size="10"face="ARIAL"color=green) unitethecows(/FONT)
unitethecows
You can also make links in which you can link to a site by using anchor tags(A)
To tell where to link to use HREF & the URL
(A HREF "http://unitethecows.com/index.php")Click Here(/A)
Note: The words Click here is what will show. So, you can use whatever words you want HERE, GO TO, and so forth. This is how it will appear:
Click Here

And finally you can add images into your HTML document by using the (IMG) tag and the SCR attribute.

To add an image should look like this:
(IMG SRC="COW.gif")
If you want your image to appear BIGGER use WIDTH & HEIGHT.
(IMG SRC="COW.gif" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=100)

And there you have it cows a quick run through of HTML!!! HTML (in its raw form) is not as widely used now that VB Code has come along and that there are many programs (HTMLComposers) that will basically "Wizard" you through whatever it is you are trying to accomplish without taking the time to manually type in the various tags, basically saving you alot of time and effort.
Knowing that UTC is growing more and more everyday, and I know there are cows out there that may have no clue what HTML or VB Code is (I know used to be one *L*) I thought this might help some of you to understand a little more about it. I would like to point out that alot of the codes for HTML are different to those you will use in VB Code and some are the same. Personally, learning HTML helped me to quickly understand how to use VB Code and for a great tutorial on understand the basics of VB Code I suggest you go to
HERE at our very own UTC!!! :thumbs up

[LPDad]

this rates :thumbs up :thumbs up :thumbs up :thumbs up

Do you mind if I make this a "sticky"??

Of cource not!!!!
Thanks for the thumbs up it will be even better when I do a little editing! Forgot to include a few things*L*

[LPDad]

Looks like you "cleaned it up"--Very nice.

The preview and edit buttons are my salvation in the forums.

*L* You got that RIGHT!!! Well, just after reading it a couple times to double check myself...it looked like it was missing something...so I figured I better fix it! *L*

Personnally, I love the cut and paste . Saves alot on the fingers!*L*

So you want HTML, HUH???

http://www.htmlgoodies.com


That is where I learned.........lol

Also, you can get a free HTML program called "First Page 2000"...........For free, it is the best I have used........

<b> This is how to make it bold</b>   :love1:

Never forget to close your code............!!!!!!!!!!!!


I almost forgot, GOOD JOB, kzykittykat!

[gbread49]

Good work krzy...... I'm sure many people wonder how someone makes all those nice "special" features display in websites, and even here on UTC. Your tutorial should give everyone a better understanding on how all of it is done.

:thumbs up

[LO There!]

well done krzykittykat

[Music Pirate]

I think it is a very good guide to HTML for newbies...

[Hova]

HTML was an easy thing to learn, in my case. PHP, CSS, a tutorial with items like that would be very useful.

PHP, CSS, a tutorial with items like that would be very useful.

Unfortunatly, I am not very fimilar with using PHP or CSS. However I did do a little research and found this nice little tutorial on the basics of using PHP and CSS. So, for anyone who interested you can see it HERE
For those of you intrested in CSS you can go HERE

Enjoy!!!:thumbs up

I don't know PHP or CSS either......but, I can learn.......hehehe.......

Thanks for the links.......

Me too!!! And your welcome!!! I know there maybe alot more links out there on how to use PHP and CSS but these are the two I saw that really explained these two programs in depth.
Hope this helps eveyone!!!:thumbs up

[Music Pirate]

I think you covered everything in it...even the kitchen sink krzykitty....j/l........LOL