Professional Growth
Web Publishing

Activity Two
Learning HTML

  • Brief Description
  • Goals
  • Materials and Resources
  • Activity Description
  • Internet Resources

    • 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.

    Up to Contents of this Page
    Objectives

    Up to Contents of this Page
    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.

    1. Special hardware requirements: none.
    2. Special software requirements: none.
    3. Internet access: Medium-speed (28,800 BPS via phone) or higher.
    Up to Contents of this Page
    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" signifying that the tag is no longer in effect.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:

    1. Header tags - H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, etc. - provide formating for document headers and subheaders. Example: <H1>

      HTML is Easy To Learn

      </H1>
    2. Text formatting tags - b, i, and u - specify bold, italic, and underline (respectively).
      Example: <i>This text should be in italics</i>
    3. 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>

    4. 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>
    5. 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.

    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.

    Up to Contents of this Page
    Internet Resources

    Up to Contents of this Page

    Back to Web Publishing Module

    LETSNet is © Michigan State University College of Education and Ameritech