Learning the Language of (X)HTML
Please feel free to add any comments or insight that might help someone getting started on Web Design. I hope this helps anybody needing the basic information to start their own little piece of cyberspace. I have found the best way to understand and learn HTML is to jump right in and start practicing. Getting a quick reference cheat sheet for your tags will help you learn as you go.
Most every Web site has one thing in common, HTML. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is what holds each web page together. HTML files that produce Web pages are text documents. These documents allow the Web to perform as well as it does because text is the universal language of computers.
Understand that web pages aren’t merely text documents; they are a collection of HTML and directions that help others see those pages as you would like them to be displayed. Therefore you have a document that not only has text but pointers and directional commands that explain how your web page is to act and what it is to look like.
The instructions within HTML allow text to link to something else. You can usually spot a link by its highlighted color, usually in blue, and its underline. These links are what we call Hypertext. Hypertext (a link) is what holds the World Wide Web together. This is the only way that you are able to move from one page to the next. Without these links the “www” would stand for World Wide Where the Heck am I. The Web would be a mess of text pages standing alone.
Special tags within a HTML text document are often referred to as “Markup”. Any text that is found between less-than and greater-than signs is an HTML tag, or the markup.
<B>enter your text</B>
These special markups are what give a web page directions on how, where and what size to display your text and images. The purpose for these tags is to let the browser know how to display your Web page. So learning your tags is the key to opening the door to your very own website. Practice makes perfect and time is what it takes to learn the language of HTML.
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