Features - The Basics of HTML: Learn Them!
01 - Mandatory Tags
First, we'll get started with the basic tags needed for a standard HTML document. Most of the time, when you start a new
document in your HTML Editor, it will automatically place these in your document so you don't need to worry about them. However, we'll go ahead
and disect them so you can learn what they actually do.
An Example of Basic HTML Code
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title of Website - Description</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000">
Basic HTML Tutorial!
</BODY>
</HTML>
The <HTML> and </HTML> Tags
These are the two essential tags when creating your HTML document. The first tag of course goes at the top of each page
while the close HTML tag goes at the end of each page. Everything between these two tags makes up the page you want to display.
Be sure that you include these in your HTML document and also if you're creating Perl scripts, in the print code, so that
everyone can see your pages clearly and without errors.
The <HEAD> and </HEAD> Tags
The HEAD is basically the document information area. These go before the <BODY> tags so that a title and other
important informational attributes can be defined in an instant by the browser. Common tags found in the <HEAD> are <TITLE>, <META>
tags, in addition to some types of JavaScript tags which are required to be interpreted by the browser before the document loads.
The <TITLE> and </TITLE> Tags
Everything enclosed between these two tags will be included in the title bar of your browser (located at the top of the window).
Be sure this gives the name of your site and possibly a short description so that your users as well as search engines can know what your website is
about quickly. This goes between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags.
The <BODY> and </BODY> Tags
These tags let the browser know what to display in the browser window, hence the name BODY. In the actual <BODY> tag, you
can specify elements such as the BGCOLOR, BACKGROUND, TEXT, LINK, VLINK (visited link), and ALINK (active link), so that it looks like the <BODY>
tag in the example above.
Within the tags, you can place the actual content of the page such as text, images, etc. However, you probably need to format it
all to look nice, right? That's what the next tutorial section covers so after reading the following, check out how you can change fonts, center text,
align it to the left or right!
Finishing Up Mandatory Tags
These are all the mandatory tags needed for a basic HTML document. Feel free to copy the code we display and have it for your own
use. Enjoy learning more about HTML!
Tutorial Sections
00 - Introduction
01 - Mandatory Tags (Html, Body, etc.)
02 - Styling Tags (Font, Alignment, etc.)
03 - Conclusion
Related Links
HTML Information
HTML Editors
R Smith
The XRS Network
Wednesday November 3, 1999
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