Lesson One

Objectives:

  • Learn the basic tags
  • Learn to create a web page in a text editor
  • See your page in a Web Browser

Learning HTML

You are about to learn the language of web design: HTML(hypertext markup language). HTML is a simple computer language that you can understand quickly.

You need to start with a simple text editor (any program that allows you to enter text). We'll use Microsoft Notepad, but any other word processing software will work.

HTML consists of a series of key words in brackets called "tags." The tags tell a Web Browser, like Internet Explorer or Netscape, how to display what you've typed as a web page. Tags are like the language that the Web Browser speaks. Every web page you see has these tags in the background making it all possible. You can see the actual tags if you click on View Source in your Browser's menu bar. Here's the code to make a simple web page:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>web page</TITLE> </HEAD>
<BODY>
This is where you enter your text and graphics.
</BODY>
</HTML>
The trickiest thing to get used to when you first start making web pages is that you type them up in a text editor (like Notepad), but when you save your files you must save them with the "htm" extension. Normally, when you create a text file, the computer will automatically save it with an added extension named "txt" for text. When you make a web page, you need to actually add a dot followed by "htm" to the end of your file name. If you create a file named "music," you need to type "music.htm" when you save your file. Now you're ready to try the first assignment. 		Assignment #1
Read over the definitions of the tags. Complete the following:
  1. Open Internet Explorer.

  2. Click on View Source. You will see a Notepad document open.

  3. Click File > New.

  4. Click Save As...and save your file as home.htm

  5. Make an H1 heading titled, "Friends."

  6. Write out the names of five friends using H2 headings.

  7. Save your file.

  8. Minimize your Notepad file.

  9. Open Internet Explorer.

  10. Click on File, then Open. Locate your file.

  11. Check to see that the page works. You should only see the names of your five friends.

  12. Click on View and then Source. Do you see your HTML?

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