Understanding HTML

HTML is a term often misunderstood and misused by many. There is a lot more than its surface, let’s dive into it as I show you the step by step process on how to make a website with just your notepad. The first rule of HTML is that every block of code must have a tag opening it and a tag closing it, plus you have a forward slash in your ending tags. Write your header tags after that. This informs the document of its intended name. Put your meta descriptions here to let the search engines know what information they need to index your website. After that, your header is all done. You’re a small step ahead in creating your own website.

The next step is to create a Body. Between the body tags, everything flows. Changes can be made to the text size, font color, style, and other elements that are included in the body tag. There are a few attributes such as Hexadecimal Values Color, size and that you can look up online. This brings more flexibility to the table and lets you customize your website as you will.

Links with the target=”_blank” or target=”_new” attributes will open in a new window even though they prevent site visitors from leaving the page you want them to stay on. By doing this, you’ll be able to keep visitors on your website even if you link to another page. You can also add links or buttons to your website using this code (<a href=”url of site, image, or whatever”>Text here</a>)

You can add an image using this one (<img> tag). Use the tag to add a picture. Put the directory where the image is located in the source.

Use the <center> tag to reposition the page’s central picture.

An image’s border can be added using the border attribute. The browser will automatically display the image’s border when an image is used as a link. Give the border attribute a value of 0 to remove the border from the image.

And when you’ve modified your body to your heart’s content, you always have to end with </body></html> to finish up the code.

To save your notepad as an html file, select file and then save as. Choose “all files” from the drop-down menu at the bottom, give it a name like “Mypage.html,” and it will save as HTML. Just select “Open with Notepad” from the context menu when you want to view it in the notepad.

And here’s explanatory code of what I explained to you above:

<html><head><title>My HTML Lesson</title></head>

<body bgcolor=”#ffffff” font color=”#000000”>Here’s my first lesson on making

text bold, underlined or in italics.

It’s fun to change the color and have it show

on the page, and I learned how to do it all by myself!

Here’s where you can get a great e-mail address! </a>

</a></center>

</body></html>

It’s really fun if you make your own website and if you can see the changes as you hone your website into perfection. And it isn’t just fun, it really affects your business in a very positive way.