Website Building 101: Very Basic HTML Code
If you are a complete beginner to HTML code but want to build a website,
where do you start? Of course, a WYSIWYG editior like Dreamweaver or Front
Page means you don't need to know any code because they will do it all for
you. Even so, it is still useful if you understand some of the very basic
code, used all the time on any HTML web page.
First of all, a tag is a piece of html code, eg <p>
It doesn't matter whether you use upper or lower case in html.
The first thing to remember is that almost all code has an opening tag and
a closing tag and a closing tag has a / in it - see the examples below.
You must always remember to use the closing tag.
Commonly Used HTML Code
Paragraph <p>Your paragraph
of text goes here.</p>
Line break, ie you want to start text on a new line but don't want a paragraph
space. <br> This code doesn't
have a closing tag.
Bold text - there are two ways of doing this:
<b>your text</b>
or <strong>your text</strong>
Italic text - again there are two ways to produce italics: <i>your
text</i> or <em>your
text</em>
Font type: <font face="Verdana">Your
text</font> - in this tag,
you substitute the name of the font you want for Verdana which is just an
example.
Font size: <font size="2">Your
text</font> - again, substitute
the size you want for 2.
Font type and size: <font size="2" face="Verdana">Your
text</font>. As above, substitute
the font and size for those you want.
Links to other sites or pages: <a href="http://www.allinfoabout.com">Your
link</a>. It is always good
policy to copy a link and then paste it rather than type it, that way you
won't make a mistake.
If you want a link to open in a new window: <a
href="http://www.allinfoabout.com" target="_blank">Your link</a>.
If you want to add pictures, see Building a
Website: Putting in Pictures for more code.
This is just the very basic code. With this you can do a very plain website.
You can use it inside a template that somebody else has designed for you
or that you have downloaded from the web - you can search for 'free templates'.
Once you become confident with these tags, you will find it easier to understand
more complex code.
Copyright © Carol Fisher 2006