The Beginner's Guide to HTML

Posted by on Apr 01 2010 in Getting Started

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the predominant authoring language used to create web pages. This language contains tags to format the contents of web documents. For example, HTML tags provide instructions on how text should appear (bold, italics, a specific color etc.) or how a web page is structured (e.g., put a graphic here, insert a link here, etc.). HTML tags can have attributes, which are further specifications for a tag.

You can recognize HTML tags because they are all enclosed in angle brackets, like these: < >. Usually, tags come in pairs to indicate the beginning and ending of a specific command. The begin tag looks like this: < > and the end tag looks like this: . So, to start a paragraph, the HTML tag <p> is placed at the point in the text where a new paragraph should begin. To end a paragraph, the HTML tag </p> is placed at the end of the text that belongs in the paragraph.

So, an HTML document (or web page) is the combination of plain text and HTML tags and, as such, HTML is a “universal” language for the internet. Who makes sure that everyone uses the same tags to accomplish the same instructions?.As of 1996, all the versions of HTML are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The most important HTML tags and their attributes are listed and defined below:

A	Anchor tag used to define where a hyperlink should go. <a></a>
Href	An attribute of the Anchor tag defining the destination of the hyperlink whether it's to other text on the same page or to a completely different web page.
body	Body tag indicates everything that will appear on the page. All web page attributes (text, links and graphics) are placed inside the start/end body tag pairing. <body></body>
bgcolor	An attribute of the Body tag to indicate a web page's background color.
background	An attribute of the Body tag to indicate a web page's background picture.
Link Alink Vlink	An attribute of the Body tag indicating the color of active links and the color of active links after they've been visited.
B	Bold tag; makes the surrounded text bold. <b></b>
Br	Line break tag; inserts a line break into text. <br>
Comments	Tag used to insert comments on the web page that are not visible in the web browser. <!--Comment-->
DIV	Tag that defines particular sections on the web page. <div></div>
Font	Tag for defining font properties. <font></font>
Size	Attribute of the Font tag that defines font size.
Color	Attribute of the Font tag that defines font color.
Face	Attribute of the Font tag used to choose a specific font.
Pointsize	Attribute of the Font tag used to give explicit point size to the font and recognized only by Netscape.
Form	Tag used to create forms on a web page into which users can enter data. <form></form>
Frame	Tag used to define individual frames that belong in a frameset so more than one HTML document can be displayed on a single web page. <frame />
src	An attribute of the Frame tag meaning “source” (the URL) of the picture or HTML document to be displayed in a frame.
name	An attribute of the Frame tag used to assigned a name to individual frames, which can be linked from other frames.
scrolling	An attribute of the Frame tag used to specify whether scroll bars should appear in a frame.
noresize	An attribute of the Frame tag that preserves layout by preventing users from resizing a frame.
frameborder	An attribute of the Frame tag specifying if a border should appear around a frame.
bordercolor	An attribute of the Frame tag that defines border color
marginwidth	An attribute of the Frame tag that conveys how wide a page should be by indicating the left and right margins.
marginheight	An attribute of the Frame tag defining page height by indicating top and bottom margins.
Frameset	Tag used to specify the layout of a web page containing frames;.individual frames on a web page are defined inside the frameset. <frameset></frameset>
Cols	Attribute of the Frameset tag used to specify column distance between frames in pixels or percentage or proportions.
Rows	Attribute of the Frameset tag used to specify row distance between frames in pixels or percentage or proportions.
Frameborder	Attribute of the Frameset tag used to specify if a border should appear around a frame.
Framespacing	Attribute of the Frameset tag defining the space between frames in pixels.
border	Attribute of the Frameset tag defining the width of all frames.
bordercolor	Attribute of the Frameset tag defining the border color of all frames.
H1-H6	Tag defining the heading style, where h1 is the largest header and h6 is the smallest. <h1></h1> <h2></h2> <h3></h3> <h4></h4> <h5></h5> <h6></h6>
Head	Header tag used at the beginning of a web page to contain information about the page, such as its title. <head></head>
HR	Tag used to create a line dividing a web page or frame horizontally. <hr>
size	Attribute of the HR tag defining the thickness of the horizontal line in pixels.
width	Attribute of the HR tag specifying the width of the horizontal line in pixels or proportions.
align	Attribute of the HR tag defines the alignment of the line as left, right, or center.
color	Attribute of the HR tag defining the color of the horizontal line.
HTML	Tag used at the very beginning and very end of a document to define it as an HTML document. <html></html>
I	Tag that makes the enclosed text into italics. <i></i>
IMG	Tag used to place an image on the web page. <img />
Src	Attribute of the IMG tag specifying the URL of the image.
Justifications	Tag defines how text should be aligned on the web page. <left></left> <center></center> <right></right>
Ol	Tag used to define an ordered list, which means items in the list will be numbered. <ol></ol>
li	Tag used for defining items that belong in a list.
P	Tag to form a paragraph within web page text, leaving a line gap at the top and bottom. <p></p>
Table	Tag used to defines a table for a web page. <table></table>
border	Attribute of the Table tag defining the table's border in pixels.
cellpadding	Attribute of the Table tag defining the space between table text.
cellspacing	Attribute of the Table tag defining spacing between table cells.
width	Attribute of the Table tag defining table width in pixels.
bgcolor	Attribute of the Table tag defining a table's background color.
background	Attribute of the Table tag defining a table's background image.
align	Attribute of the Table tag defining alignment of data in the cells.
bordercolor	Attribute of the Table tag defining border color.
bordercolorlight	Attribute of the Table tag used to define the lighter color of a border having a 3D effect.
bordercolordark	Attribute of the Table tag used to define the darker color of a border having a 3D effect.
td	Tag defining data within an HTML table cell. <td></td>
tr	Tag defining a row in an HTML table. <tr></tr>
Title	Tag defining the title of the HTML document (web page). <title></title>
U	Tag used to specify underlined text. <u></u>
ul	Tag used to define an unordered list, which means items in the lift will appear as bullet points. <ul></ul>

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