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I have designed the lessons in this class to help those who have NO HTML experience at all obtain a basic knowledge of how to build a home page through weekly lessons which will be distributed by e-mail. If I have the time I will also post the lessons on my home page.

There is not doubt in my mind that each of you is capable of creating a simple web page during the length of this class. I really expect each of you will have a simple basic page after week two of the class.

The weekly lessons will present small blocks of information designed to get you started toward the building of your home page. If you should go on and get your page in the first week of the class and add the HTML codes as we go, by the end of the second week you should have one page on line ready to be viewed by the public.

Basic Terminology

The following terms are defined in a very limited and simple way. There are much more technical ways to explain the term but the simplest should suffice for the general person.

HTML:

This stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is the basic "language" that web pages are written in. ( It is designed so that it can be read by all web browsers.)

ANGLE BRACKETS:

These two characters < and > are typed on the keyboard as shift key+comma and shift key+period. They are used to set HTML tags off from the rest of the text on the page. All HTML tags are surrounded by these two symbols.

TAGS:

These are how we turn ordinary text into HTML. For example, and are the opening and closing tags that indicate a document is written in HTML.

SERVER:

For our purposes, this is the computer on which your web pages will reside.

BROWSER:

Software used to access and view the World Wide Web. The two most common browser's are: Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. All browsers can "read" HTML but the way it reads it is not uniform in all cases. You will learn some of the things that are displayed differently by the browsers as we come to the terms.

URL:

Stands for "Uniform Resource Locator. this is the "address" of a web page; i.e.,

HYPERLINKS/LINKS:

HTML coded locations (usually underlined and displayed in a different text color) which lead you to other places on the web (for example, to another URL) or to another location within the current page.

HOME PAGE:

The first page that you will see when you browse a particular URL; the first or main page of your web site. Your home page may actually consist of several different web pages all connected by LINKS!

HTML EDITORS:

Software designed to help create a web page. Many of these programs allow for web page creation supposedly without knowing any HTML. Some are available as shareware on the web, and some commercial products offer demo versions.

For this class I am going to recommend a free ware program that is an excellent program. Anyone that is going to do more advance web page editing may want to get the full registered version at a later date. http://ded.com/nonags/main.html click on the name of the server closest to you and then click on the html editors link. Scroll down until you come to HomeSite 1.2 For Win95/NT and download it. If you are running windows 3.1 or 3.11 download this software http://www.iesmidwest.com/IES/242e.htm it is not as good as Homesite but will have to do because it is the only html editor I used in windows 3.11.

My Pages:

A special directory or folder created on your computer at home for the purpose of organizing your web page work. All of your HTML pages, images and other related files should be stored in this folder for your convenience.
Some of you may just make your first web page right after reading this lesson. The most important tags for making a web page are below.

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

Yes, that is it. Four sets of tags. Now wasn't that easy? It is VERY important to remember that HTML, for the most part, is written using SETS of tags like the example we have already used:

It might be helpful to think of tag sets as "containers" with each set containing a particular part of the HTML document. It is also essential to remember to type both the < and > parts of each HTML tag. Since we are a little familiar with the BODY tag set, we will take it first.

The BODY of the Document appears between the tags. EVERYTHING you are reading on this page, if you are reading it on the web or see on a web page that you visit, constitutes the BODY of the document. The HTML tag set,

This tag set tells a web browser the document it written in HTML and contains the entire document, what is visible to the reader in the body and other things as well.

The HEAD tag set,

Contains special information for web browsers, including the

tags, which contain the name of the document which appears at the top of the web browser and is what will appear in a person's bookmark file if they bookmark your page. The TITLE does not appear on the web page itself. It is also the only part of the HEAD section that is visible to the reader.

Well, that's the overview of truly basic HTML. We will add to the page next week so that you will be able to have a more interesting page.

Next week:

  • Background Tags
  • Text Tags
  • Image Tags

Lesson One
Lesson Two
Lesson Three
Lesson Four
Lesson Five
Lesson Six
Page Extras
Netscape Color Codes
Links for Graphics
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