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
    • What Is a Web Page?
    • How Web Pages Work
    • How to Edit Web Pages
    • The Many Faces of HTML
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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
  • 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'm stuck on my first page. It didn't work. What did I do wrong?

   That first page is always the hardest. For a step-by-step analysis of what might have gone wrong and how to fix it, refer to Appendix A, "Readers' Most Frequently Asked Questions." (You'll find that appendix handy anytime you have a question that doesn't seem to be answered elsewhere in the book.)

2. I'm still not quite sure what the difference between a "Web page" and an "HTML page" is. And how are these different from a "home page" or a "Web site"?

   If you want to get technical, I suppose a "Web page" would have to be from the Internet instead of a disk on your own computer. But in practice, the terms "Web page" and "HTML page" are used interchangeably. A "Web site" is one or more pages that are created together and related in content, like the pages of a book. "Home page" usually means the first page people visit when they look at a Web site, although some people use home page to mean any Web page. Others use home page to mean a personal page, as opposed to a corporate Web site.

3. I've looked at the HTML "source" of some Web pages on the Internet, and it looks frighteningly difficult to learn. Do I have to think like a computer programmer to learn this stuff?

   Although complex HTML pages can indeed look daunting, learning HTML is several orders of magnitude easier than other computer languages like BASIC, C, and Java. You don't need any experience or skill as a computer programmer to be a very successful HTML author.

4. Do you need to be connected to the Internet constantly while you create HTML pages?

   No. In fact, you don't need any Internet connection at all if you only want to produce Web pages for publication on a CD-ROM, zip or floppy disk, or local network. Hour 2, "Create a Web Page Right Now," gives more detailed instructions for working with Web pages offline.

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