Sams Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours

Sams Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours

By Dick Oliver

A Simple Sample Page

Figure 2.1 shows the text you would type and save to create a simple HTML page. If you opened this file with a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator, you would see the page in Figure 2.2.

02fig01.gif

Figure 2.1 Every Web page you create must include the <html>, <head>, <title>, and <body> tags.

02fig02.jpg

Figure 2.2 When you view the Web page in Figure 2.1 with a Web browser, only the actual title and body text are displayed.

In Figure 2.1, as in every HTML page, the words starting with < and ending with > are actually coded commands. These coded commands are called HTML tags because they "tag" pieces of text and tell the Web browser what kind of text it is. This allows the Web browser to display the text appropriately.

An HTML tag is a coded command used to indicate how part of a Web page should be displayed.

Note

In Figure 2.1, and most other figures in this book, HTML tags are printed darker than the rest of the text so you can easily spot them. When you type your own HTML files, all the text will be the same color (unless you are using a special HTML editing program that uses color to highlight tags, such as HTML-Kit or FrontPage 2000).

Note

Figure 2.2 may look a little bit different than your Web browser does (even if you are using the same version of Netscape Navigator) because I have hidden all the button bars. All the figures in this book have the button bars hidden to leave more room for the Web pages themselves.

Before you learn what the HTML tags in Figure 2.1 mean, you might want to see exactly how I went about creating and viewing the document itself:

  1. Type all the text in Figure 1.1, including the HTML tags, in Windows Notepad (or Macintosh SimpleText).
  2. Select File, Save As and be sure to select Text Documents as the file type.
  3. Name the file myfirst.html . (If you're using a Windows 3.1 or DOS program, you need to name it myfirst.htm instead because those old operating systems are too prudish to handle filenames ending in four-letter words.)
  4. Choose the directory folder on your hard drive where you would like to keep your Web pages—and remember which one you choose! Click the Save or OK button to save the file.
  5. Now start up Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. (Leave Notepad running, too. That way you can easily switch back and forth between viewing and editing your page.)

Note

You don't need to be connected to the Internet to view a Web page stored on your own computer. If your Web browser program tries to connect to the Internet every time you start it, it is being a bad browser and you must discipline it severely. The appropriate disciplinary action will depend on your breed of browser:

  • In Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, select Tools, Internet Options; click the General tab and click Use Blank under Home page. (In Internet Explorer 4, this is on the View menu instead of the Tools menu.)
  • In Netscape Navigator 5, select Edit, Preferences; choose the Navigator category and select Blank Page under Navigator Starts With.

This teaches your browser not to run off and fetch a page from the Internet every time it starts.

  1. In Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, select File, Open and click Browse. If you're using Netscape Navigator 4 or 5, select File, Open Page and click the Choose File button. Navigate to the appropriate folder and select the myfirst.html file.

    Voilá! You should see the page in Figure 2.2.

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