Creating an HTML page

Skills: edit and debug HTML pages

IT concepts: text editor

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Where does this topic fit?

• Internet concepts– Applications– Technology– Implications

• Internet skills– Application development– Content creation

There are tools for creating Web sites that generate HTML for you – why learn HTML?

• Users– To be able to modify pages – for example adding a

feature to a blog– To understand how the technology works in order to

feel empowered and in control

• Developers– To be able to write programs that generate HTML

Use a text editor, not a word processer or HTML editor to do your assignments.

Notepad, a text editor

Word, a word processor

Extra information in a .doc file

A Web client would not understand this.

The Notepad text editor

Notepad is included with Windows.

Start > All programs > Accessories > Notepad

First, enter the text

Add the basic HTML tags

Save the file on your hard drive

Naming your HTML file

Use the extension htm or html.

Be careful to select All Files as the type.

Check to see the file was saved in the directory you selected

Be sure the file has the extension .htm, not .txt.

Display the page with a Web client

The content is correct, but not the presentation. Web clients run everything together.

(Double click on the file name or use the File > Open command in the Web client).

Add the <h2> and <p> tags

Save it on your hard drive then refresh using the Web client

Note that it re-wraps the text if the window is re-sized

Four tips

Notepad and a Web client side by side

Simple debugging -- change the HTML, save it, and refresh the client.

HTML source for the Classes page on my Web site

The browser View > Source command

The HTML <br> tags are missing

The composed page has line breaks

HTML editors may be approximate

Before starting, turn off Windows extension hiding

tools > folder options ... > view

uncheck

You only have to do this one time.

A few questions

What difference would it make in our example if you accidently left of the paragraph closing tag </p>?

What difference does it make if you add extra blank lines between two lines of text?

Creating an HTML page

Skills: edit and debug HTML pages

IT concepts: text editor

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.