Professional Growth
Web Publishing
Activity Two
Learning HTML
Brief Description
Assuming that you are planning on publishing your own Web documents,
you probably will need to spend some time learning the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) commands
that are the basis for all Web documents. HTML is a set of tags that are placed within <>
symbols to indicate to the Web browser how text should be formatted. This activity provides
references to places where you can learn the HTML tags and use them in your own Web documents.
Objectives
- Learn basic HTML tags or commands.
- Find places to go on the Internet to learn more about HTML.
Materials and Resources
In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and
software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We
assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer with the necessary
hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as a World Wide Web browser. In the
section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in
addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.
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Special hardware requirements: none.
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Special software requirements: none.
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Internet access: Medium-speed (28,800 BPS via phone) or higher.
Activity Description
In order to use the Web for publishing, you will probably need to learn
more about the structure of the Web and the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML is the language
used to create Web pages and is a subset of a more powerful language, the Standard Markup
Generalized Language (SMGL). See the Internet Resources for more on SMGL.
All HTML tags are placed within "<>" and are used in pairs, with the initial tag specifying
the start of the command and an ending tag "</>" signifying that the tag is no longer in effect.
There are five basic HTML tags that almost any Web document includes:
- Header tags - H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, etc. - provide formating for document headers and subheaders. Example: <H1>
HTML is Easy To Learn
</H1>
- Text formatting tags - b, i, and u - specify bold, italic, and underline (respectively).
Example: <i>This text should be in italics</i>
- Table formatting tags - ul or ol - specify unordered lists and ordered lists, where the ordered lists have numbers and unordered don't. Example: <ul><li>
- Item #1<li>
- Item #2<li>
- Item #3</ul>
- Anchor tags (also called references) - a href= - that specify hyperlinks to other web documents or sections of the current document. Example: <a href="http://www.yahoo.com">YAHOO Website</a>
- Paragraph formatting tags - p, br, etc. - that signify line feeds or carriage returns in text. Example: This text would end in a line feed<br>
There is a variety of helpful resources available that you can use to learn more about the Web and publishing. The list below is by no means complete, but is a small sample of the resources available. Some of these are self-paced tutorials that are available on-line, while others require you to register and take the "class" on-line over a set period of time.
- HTML Creation Assistant (see Internet Resources below) is a set of resources (references to
places where you can download HTML editors, etc.) as well as tips and suggestions for creating
your own HTML files.
- Visit the Everything You Need to Surf the Net - For FREE! Website, where you can find all
kinds of Web stuff for PC folks!! Macintosh folks visit Charles Boley's Macintosh Internet
Software Archive for similar resources (see Internet Resources below).
- Visit A Beginner's Guide to HTML at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications
(NCSA) to start learning about HTML or A Beginner's Guide to HTML Programming by Gregory
Nussberger which is an interactive tutorial on HTML programming. These (and other) sites
include sections on creating a homepage, a homepage template, publishing a homepage, and a
list of HTML terms and definitions (see Internet Resources below).
- Another excellent starting point is John December's Internet site, which has lots of
information about the Internet and the World Wide Web. The section on Guides to the Internet/Using
the World Wide Web offers information about HTML and how to do HTML programming
(see Internet Resources below).
- Creating HTML: A Simple Guide by Jason Borneman, is a short, but complete, tutorial on HTML,
with everything from HTML tags and editors, to links and HTML 3.0 (see Internet Resources below).
- Special Edition using HTML, which is based on the book published by Que, is a tutorial
that covers everything about HTML, from its history to current versions (see Internet Resources below).
Tip: When you are browsing the Web and you find a Web document that looks interesting or attractive to you, use the Document Source option off the View menu in Netscape Navigator to examine the HTML tags.
Internet Resources
Back to Web Publishing Module
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