Chapter 2: An introduction to Web programming
The most common instruction code used to create webpages is called Hypertext Markup Language, commonly referred to as HTML. In this chapter you'll learn about the basic principles of using HTML to create your webpages.
To help you make the most out of this tutorial and to make learning how to create webpages as easy as possible, we recommend you download and install the multi-award-winning BestAddress HTML Editor on your computer before you continue.
Working with HTML Tags
HTML is built around elements (also referred to as tags). Essentially they are formatting instructions that are embedded into a document containing text. Elements are distinguished from the surrounding text by angle brackets ( < and > ). Most elements are used in pairs - an opening element, followed by the text to which the formatting should apply, and then a closing element. The opening and closing elements differ from one another by a slash (/) immediately after the < angle bracket of the closing element. The following example demonstrates the formatting of a string of text to bold:
<b>This text is displayed as bold,</b> while this text is not.
When displayed in a Web browser, the HTML code segment above would appear as follows:
This text is displayed as bold, while this text is not.
There are many elements in HTML, each having their own purpose. A complete list of HTML elements along with their description is available in the Language Reference section of the help file supplied with the BestAddress HTML Editor (http://www.mmaus.com/bestaddress.html).
Working with HTML Documents
You are now ready to create your first webpage using the BestAddress HTML Editor. If you don't already have the program installed, you can download a free evaluation version from http://www.mmaus.com/bestaddress.html.
The first thing you need to do when you start the BestAddress HTML Editor is to create a new HTML document. To create a new HTML document, choose New from the File menu. In the dialog box that appears, select a template, or otherwise choose Blank Document and click OK. A new HTML document is created for you ready to be edited.
You will notice that the new document already contains a number of elements. These form the basic structure of your webpage. At present, the document will look something like this (for simplicity, several optional <meta> tags have been omitted from the code below):
<html>
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Each element has a specific role in setting up the webpage.
The first line of code contains the <html> element. This instructs the Web browser that the document it is dealing with is a HTML document. You will notice that the last element in the document also contains the appropriate ending tag </html> to tell the browser that it is the end of the HTML document.
On the next line, we find the <head> element. This defines the header of the page. The header serves as the page's introduction. Browsers use the it to find information about the page. The header contains the <title> and </title> elements. The text between the title elements is usually displayed in the title bar of the browser window. The BestAddress HTML Editor automatically adds Enter_Title_Here between the title elements. You should replace this text with your own title. The title should be as brief as possible, yet should provide a good description on webpage's purpose.
Finally, we find the <body> and </body> elements. It is between these that you place the contents of your webpage. You will learn how to start adding content to your webpage in the next chapter.
