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Lesson 1 - HTML Documents
HTML documents are text and graphics [which you see] and special directions for browsers [which you don't see].

The special directions (or tags), are contained in the html file, and are enclosed with these symbols: < and >. Usually, if you tell the browser to do something in a tag, you will also need to tell the browser to end that task in a tag with this sign in it: /

For example:
Tell the browser to open an HTML document.
<HTML>

Now close it.
</HTML>

HTML documents have two sections: the HEAD, and the BODY. An HTML document will need to open and close both of these parts:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Usually any general instructions for the page or for search engines go into the HEAD. Your text and graphics go into the BODY.

1st Assignment:
Make a simple web page with HTML code.

  • Open Notepad on your computer. (On Windows, usually go to "Start" then to "Programs" then "Assessories" and then Notepad will usually be near the end.)
  • Type in the code as shown below:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Make a title now, and put it in the HEAD, like this:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My First Web Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Now give yourself credit for doing all this work so far. You do this with a META tag, like this:

<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Your Name Here">

Put the META tag in the HEAD so now it looks like this:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Your Name Here">
<TITLE>My First Web Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Well, guess what! What you have so far won't show anything at all in a browser window, (except you will see the title, "My First Web Page," on the top status bar of your web browser).

So. . . . .Put a short text message between the body tags.

Here is Trina's very first web assignment:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Trina A-11">
<TITLE>Trina's First Web Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Hello, this is my web page. This is my typing on the web page.
</BODY>
</HTML>

And it looked like this!
(Note: This and most other page examples will load in a new browser window. You may size that window so that it only takes up a small portion of this screen by clicking the small "box" button on the upper right corner of the window. To close the new window, just click the "x".)

SAVE your program. Click on "Save As" and name the file firstpage.htm. It's very important that you put dot(period)htm at the end of the name or it won't save as an HTML file.

Save the file to your disc. (You can set up a special folder for your HTML work there.)

Now reopen your file with your browser program. What do you see? Pretty cool, huh?

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Copyright ©2000, Marilyn Huffman. All rights reserved.