HTML Tag Syntax

Basic Tag Anatomy
<tag-name> = on

</tag-name> = off
"Closed" tags (Containers)
<tag-name> some content </tag-name>
"Open" tags
<tag-name> some content
Attributes in tags
<tag-name attribute-name = argument ...> some content </tagname>

Web Page Formatting

Browser reads HTML code from left to right, top to bottom
The following characters are ignored (collectively known as "whitespace"):
- multiple space characters
- tabs
- extra linefeeds and newline characters
Web pages consist of two basic parts
- head or "header"
  - page title (required)
  - meta tags and keywords
  - frame information
  - JavaScript
- body
  - all of the HTML that is displayed in the browser

Typical Web page skeleton

<html>
   <head>
       <title> some text for title bar </title>
   </head>
   <body>
       <H1>A Document Heading</H1>
 
       This is the text of the first paragraph.
       ...
 
       <p>
       A second paragraph. ...
   </body>
</html>

HTML Visual Structure

Typing "clean" HTML
- Indenting
- hard returns
- line spacing
  example 1:
  <B>This is a list of things to do:
     <UL>
          <LI>item one
          <LI>item two
          <LI>item three
     <UL>
  
  example 2 (this one is really a matter of personal style):
  <HR
        SIZE=1
        WIDTH=85%
        ALIGN=LEFT
        NOSHADE>
  <P>
Use comments

Last Modified: March 10, 1999 VK