Sams Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours

By Dick Oliver

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Put Your HTML Page Online Today
  • I. Your First Web Page
  • Hour 1. Understanding HTML and XML
  • Hour 2. Create a Web Page Right Now
  • Hour 3. Linking to Other Web Pages
  • Hour 4. Publishing Your HTML Pages
  • II. Web Page Text
  • Hour 5. Text Alignment and Lists
  • Hour 6. Text Formatting and Font Control
  • Hour 7. Email Links and Links Within a Page
  • Hour 8. Creating HTML Forms
  • III. Web Page Graphics
  • Hour 9. Creating Your Own Web Page Graphics
  • Hour 10. Putting Graphics on a Web Page
  • Hour 11. Custom Backgrounds and Colors
  • Hour 12. Creating Animated Graphics
    • Software for Making Web Page Animations
    • Creating the Pictures You Want to Animate
    • Assembling the Pictures into an Animation
    • Putting a GIF Animation onto a Web Page
    • Generating Transitions and Text Effects
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • IV. Web Page Design
  • Hour 13. Page Design and Layout
  • Hour 14. Graphical Links and Imagemaps
  • Hour 15. Advanced Layout with Tables
  • Hour 16. Using Style Sheets
  • V. Dynamic Web Pages
  • Hour 17. Embedding Multimedia in Web Pages
  • Hour 18. Interactive Pages with Applets and ActiveX
  • Hour 19. Web Page Scripting for Non-Programmers
  • Hour 20. Setting Pages in Motion with Dynamic HTML
  • VI. Building a Web Site
  • Hour 21. Multipage Layout with Frames
  • Hour 22. Organizing and Managing a Web Site
  • Hour 23. Helping People Find Your Web Pages
  • Hour 24. Planning for the Future of HTML
  • VII. Appendixes
  • A. Readers' Most Frequently Asked Questions
  • B. HTML Learning Resources on the Internet
  • C. Complete HTML 4 Quick Reference
  • D. HTML Character Entities

Q&A

1. I've seen quite a few animations on the Web that show a three-dimensional object rotating. Can I make those with Animation Shop?

   Yes, but you'll also need some kind of 3D modeling and rendering software to create the individual frames.

   You may have also seen interactive, three-dimensional virtual reality scenes and objects embedded in Web pages. Those are something completely different than GIF animations, made with a special language called the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, or VRML. For more information on VRML, refer to http://www.sgi.com/vrml/.

2. I've seen moving marquee-type signs on Web pages. Are those GIF animations?

   Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. There are several ways to make text move across an area on a Web page. One of the easiest is to use Animation Shop, which can make fancy marquees from a simple string of text that you type. See the Animation Shop online help for details.

   Note that GIF animations are only one way to make marquees. They are Java applets or ActiveX controls (see Hour 18, "Interactive Pages with Applets and ActiveX" ). Some versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer even support a special <marquee> tag, but this tag is now obsolete.

3. I have a Windows AVI video clip. Can I turn it into a GIF animation?

   Yes. Simply open the AVI file with Animation Shop 6 to convert it to a GIF animation. (You are given the option to reduce the number of frames; it's usually a good idea to sample every third frame or so to keep the file size down to reasonable proportions.)

   You can also embed AVI files directly into Web pages, as discussed in Hour 17.

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