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
    • Boldface, Italics, and Special Formatting
    • Font Size and Color
    • Choosing a Typeface
    • Special Characters
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • 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. Other books talk about some text formatting tags that you didn't cover in this chapter, such as <code> and <address>. Shouldn't I know about them?

   There are a number of tags in HTML that indicate what kind of information is contained in some text. The <address> tag, for example, was supposed to be put around addresses. The only visible effect of <address> in most browsers, however, is making the text italic. Web page authors today most often simply use the <i> tag instead. Similarly, <code> and <kbd> do essentially the same thing as <tt>. You may also read about <var>, <samp>, or <dfn> in some older HTML references, but nobody uses them in ordinary Web pages.

   One tag that you might occasionally find handy is <blockquote>, which indents all the text until the closing </blockquote>. Some Web page authors use <blockquote> on all or part of a page as a quick and easy way to widen the left and right margins.

2. How do I find out the exact name for a font I have on my computer?

   On a Windows or Macintosh computer, open the control panel and click the Fonts folder. The TrueType fonts on your system are listed. Use the exact spelling of font names when specifying them in the <font face> tag. If you use Adobe Type Manager, run the ATM Control Panel to find the name of Postscript fonts in Windows.

3. How do I put Kanji, Arabic, Chinese, and other non-European characters on my pages?

   First of all, everyone you want to be able to read these characters on your pages must have the appropriate language fonts installed. They must also have selected that language character set and font under Options, General Preferences, Fonts in Netscape Navigator or View, Options, General, Fonts in Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can use the Character Map accessory in Windows 95 (or a similar program in other operating systems) to get the numerical codes for each character in any language font. If the character you want has a code of 214, use &#214; to place it on a Web page.

   The best way to include a short message in an Asian language (such as we speak tamil—call us!) is to include it as a graphics image. That way everyone will see it, even if they use English as their primary language for Web browsing.

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