HTML stands for Hyper
Text Markup Language.
An HTML file is a text file containing markup
tags. The markup tags tell the Web browser how to display the page. An HTML file must have an ‘htm’ or ‘html’ file extension. An HTML file can be created using a simple text editor. The rule-making
body of the Web is World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C puts together specifications for Web standards. The most essential Web
standards are HTML, CSS and XML.
The latest HTML standard is XHTML 1.0.
Example: Creating
a simple web page
- Start Notepad.
- Type in the following text
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of page</title>
</head>
<body>
This is a very basic webpage. <b>This text will be displayed in bold</b>
</body>
</html>
3.
Save the file as "firstpage.html".
4.
Double
click the saved file the browser will display the page.
Example Explained:
The first tag in your HTML document is <html>. This tag
tells your browser that this is the start of an HTML document. The last tag in
your document is </html>. This tag tells your browser that this is the
end of the HTML document.
The text between the <head> tag and the </head> tag is
header information. Header information is not displayed in the browser window.
The text between the <title> tags is the title of your
document. The title is displayed in your browser's caption.
The text between the <body> tags is the text that will be
displayed in your browser.
The text between the <b> and
</b> tags will be displayed in a bold font.
HTM or HTML Extension?
When you save an HTML file, you
can use either the .htm or the .html extension. We have used .html in our example.
HTML Tags
- HTML tags are used to mark-up HTML elements
- HTML tags are surrounded by the two characters < and >
- The surrounding characters are called angle brackets
- HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b>
- The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag
- The text between the start and end tags is the element content
- HTML tags are not case sensitive, <b> means the same as <B>
Use Lowercase Tags?
We have just said that HTML tags are not case sensitive: <B>
means the same as <b>. It is recommended to always use because
If you want to prepare yourself for the next generations of HTML, you should start using lowercase tags. The World Wide Web Consortium recommends lowercase tags in their HTML 4 recommendation, and XHTML (the next generation HTML) demands lowercase tags.
Tags can have attributes. Attributes
can provide additional information about the HTML elements on your page.
This tag defines the body element of your HTML page: <body>.
With an added bgcolor attribute, you can tell the browser that the background
color of your page should be red, like this: <body
bgcolor="red">.
Attributes always come in name/value pairs like this: name="value".
Attributes are always added to the
start tag of an HTML element.
Quote Styles, "red" or 'red'?
Attribute values should always be enclosed in quotes. Double style
quotes are the most common, but single style quotes are also allowed. In some
rare situations, like when the attribute value itself contains quotes, it is
necessary to use single quotes:
Headings
Headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags.
<h1> defines the largest heading. <h6> defines the smallest
heading.
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>
<h4>This is a heading</h4>
<h5>This is a heading</h5>
<h6>This is a heading</h6>
HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a
heading.
Paragraphs
Paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>
HTML automatically adds an extra
blank line before and after a paragraph.
Line Breaks
The <br> tag is used when you want to end a line, but don't
want to start a new paragraph. The <br> tag forces a line break wherever
you place it.
<p>This <br> is a para<br>graph with line
breaks</p>
The <br> tag is an empty
tag. It has no closing tag.
Comments in HTML
The comment tag is used to insert a comment in the HTML source
code. A comment will be ignored by the browser. You can use comments to explain
your code, which can help you when you edit the source code at a later date.
<!--
This is a comment -->
Note: that you
need an exclamation point after the opening bracket, but not before the closing
bracket.
Text Formatting Tags
|
Tag
|
Description
|
|
Defines bold text
|
|
|
Defines big text
|
|
|
Defines emphasized text
|
|
|
Defines italic text
|
|
|
Defines small text
|
|
|
Defines strong text
|
|
|
Defines subscripted text
|
|
|
Defines superscripted text
|
|
|
Defines inserted text
|
|
|
Defines deleted text
|
Character Entities
Some characters have a special meaning in HTML, like the less than
sign (<) that defines the start of an HTML tag. If we want the browser to
actually display these characters we must insert character entities in the HTML
source.
A character entity has three parts: an ampersand (&), an
entity name or a # and an entity number, and finally a semicolon (;).
To display a less than sign in an HTML document we must write: <
or <
The advantage of using a name instead of a number is that a name
is easier to remember. The disadvantage is that not all browsers support the
newest entity names, while the support for entity numbers is very good in
almost all browsers.
Note that the entities are case
sensitive.
Non-breaking Space
The most common character entity in HTML is the non-breaking space.
Normally HTML will truncate spaces
in your text. If you write 10 spaces in your text HTML will remove 9 of them.
To add spaces to your text, use the character entity.
Most Common Character Entities
|
Result
|
Description
|
Entity Name
|
Entity Number
|
|
|
non-breaking space
|
|
 
|
|
<
|
less than
|
<
|
<
|
|
>
|
greater than
|
>
|
>
|
|
&
|
ampersand
|
&
|
&
|
|
"
|
quotation mark
|
"
|
"
|
|
'
|
apostrophe
|
' (does not work in IE)
|
'
|
Additional Commonly Used Character Entities
|
Result
|
Description
|
Entity Name
|
Entity Number
|
|
¢
|
cent
|
¢
|
¢
|
|
£
|
pound
|
£
|
£
|
|
¥
|
yen
|
¥
|
¥
|
|
§
|
section
|
§
|
§
|
|
©
|
copyright
|
©
|
©
|
|
®
|
registered trademark
|
®
|
®
|
|
×
|
multiplication
|
×
|
×
|
|
÷
|
division
|
÷
|
÷
|
The Anchor Tag and the Href Attribute
HTML uses the <a> (anchor) tag to
create a link to another document.
An anchor can point to any resource on the Web: an HTML page, an
image, a sound file, a movie, etc.
The syntax of creating an anchor:
<a href="url">Text to be displayed</a>
The <a> tag is used to create an anchor to link, the href
attribute is used to address the document to link to, and the words between the
open and close of the anchor tag will be displayed as a hyperlink.
This anchor defines a link to EEE
111 webpage:
<a href="http://faraday.ee.emu.edu.tr/eee111">Visit
EEE 111</a>
The line above will look like this in a browser:
Visit EEE 111
The Target Attribute
With the target attribute, you can define where the linked
document will be opened.
The line below will open the document in a new browser window:
<a href="http://faraday.ee.emu.edu.tr/eee111" target="_blank">
Visit EEE 111</a>
The Anchor Tag and the Name Attribute
The name attribute is used to create a named anchor. When using
named anchors we can create links that can jump directly into a specific
section on a page, instead of letting the user scroll around to find what
he/she is looking for.
Below is the syntax of a named anchor:
<a name="label">Text to be displayed</a>
The name attribute is used to create a named anchor. The name of
the anchor can be any text you care to use.
The line below defines a named anchor:
<a href="#down">Bottom of the page</a>
You should notice that a named anchor is not displayed in a
special way.
To link directly to the "down" section, add a # sign and
the name of the anchor to the end of a URL, like this:
<a href="http://faraday.ee.emu.edu.tr/eee111#down">Jump to down section</a>
A hyperlink to the Useful Tips Section from WITHIN the file "firstpage.html"
will look like this:
<a name="down">Down is here</a>
Tables
Tables are defined with the <table> tag. A table is divided into rows (with the <tr> tag), and each row is divided into data cells (with the <td> tag). The letters td stands for "table data," which is the content of a data cell. A data cell can contain text, images, lists, paragraphs, forms, horizontal rules, tables, etc.
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>row 1, cell 1</td>
<td>row 1, cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row 2, cell 1</td>
<td>row 2, cell 2</td>
</tr>
</table>
How it looks in a browser:
|
row 1, cell 1
|
row 1, cell 2
|
|
row 2, cell 1
|
row 2, cell 2
|
Tables and the Border Attribute
If you do not specify a border attribute the table will be
displayed without any borders. Sometimes this can be useful, but most of the
time, you want the borders to show.
To display a table with borders, you will have to use the border
attribute:
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>Row 1, cell 1</td>
<td>Row 1, cell 2</td>
</tr>
</table>
Headings in a Table
Headings in a table are defined with the <th> tag.
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Heading</th>
<th>Another Heading</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row 1, cell 1</td>
<td>row 1, cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row 2, cell 1</td>
<td>row 2, cell 2</td>
</tr>
</table>
How it looks in a browser:
|
Heading
|
Another Heading
|
|
row 1, cell 1
|
row 1, cell 2
|
|
row 2, cell 1
|
row 2, cell 2
|
Empty Cells in a Table
Table cells with no content are not displayed very well in most
browsers.
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>row 1, cell 1</td>
<td>row 1, cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row 2, cell 1</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
How it looks in a browser:
|
row 1, cell 1
|
row 1, cell 2
|
|
row 2, cell 1
|
|
Note that the borders around the empty table cell are missing (NB!
Mozilla Firefox displays the border).
To avoid this, add a non-breaking space ( ) to empty data
cells, to make the borders visible:
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>row 1, cell 1</td>
<td>row 1, cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row 2, cell 1</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
How it looks in a browser:
|
row 1, cell 1
|
row 1, cell 2
|
|
row 2, cell 1
|
|
Table Tags
|
Tag
|
Description
|
|
Defines a table
|
|
|
Defines a table header
|
|
|
Defines a table row
|
|
|
Defines a table cell
|
|
|
Defines a table caption
|
|
|
Defines groups of table columns
|
|
|
Defines the attribute values for
one or more columns in a table
|
|
|
Defines a table head
|
|
|
Defines a table body
|
|
|
Defines a table footer
|
HTML
supports ordered, unordered and definition lists
Unordered Lists
An unordered list is a list of items. The list items are marked
with bullets (typically small black circles).
An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag. Each list item
starts with the <li> tag.
<ul>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ul>
Here is how it looks in a browser:
- Coffee
- Milk
Inside a list item you can put
paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.
Ordered Lists
An ordered list is also a list of items. The list items are marked
with numbers.
An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item
starts with the <li> tag.
<ol>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ol>
Here is how it looks in a browser:
- Coffee
- Milk
Inside a list item you can put
paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.
Definition Lists
A definition list is not a list of items. This is a list of
terms and explanation of the terms.
A definition list starts with the <dl> tag. Each
definition-list term starts with the <dt> tag. Each definition-list
definition starts with the <dd> tag.
<dl>
<dt>Coffee</dt>
<dd>Black hot drink</dd>
<dt>Milk</dt>
<dd>White cold drink</dd>
</dl>
Here is how it looks in a browser:
Coffee
Black hot
drink
Milk
White cold
drink
Inside a definition-list definition (the <dd> tag) you can
put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.
List Tags
|
Tag
|
Description
|
|
Defines an ordered list
|
|
|
Defines an unordered list
|
|
|
Defines a list item
|
|
|
Defines a definition list
|
|
|
Defines a definition term
|
|
|
Defines a definition description
|
