1.  HTML = HyperText Markup Language  describes the way that a Web page should look.
HTML files are Ascii text files that contain some combination of Tags and Text.  Tags 
are directives placed inside a pair of angle brackets (less than and greater than).

2. Syntax: <tag>Some text goes here</tag>
Most tags as shown above, have a scope of influence on the embedded text from the Tag
opening (<tag>) or start Tag to the Tag closing (</tag>) or stop Tag.  Some Tags
are optional due to their popularity in html files.

3. Essential HTML Tags

4. Notes about Tags.
	
	

	
 Start tags do not have to appear at the beginning of a line.
	
 Stop tags do not have to appear at the end of a line.
	
 Tags are case-insensitive.
	
 Browsers ignore most white space (spaces, tabs, and newlines.) Use for readability.
	
 Quoting within Tags must be single or double quotes (straight not curly)


5. Headings and Text Attributes
	
There are six levels of headings, <h1> through <h6>, where <h1> is the largest
font size.  This table below gives the Tags for headings and text attributes.

	
Options for <font> include:
	CLASS=name (specify a style class controlling the appearance of the font)
	COLOR="#ffff00" (Set the color to the 6 character hexadecimal string reflecting RGB color wheel)
	FACE="name of typeface"	 (Uses the typeface specified or approximate rendering).
	SIZE="[+-][1-7]" (provides the font size specification in absolute terms (n=1-7) or relative to a base font size +n or -n.)


5. Lists and Special Characters
	
There are 3 types of lists used in HTML: Unordered (Bulleted) Lists,  Ordered (Numbered) 
Lists and Definition Lists (Glossary).
	
Each type has its own tag and one or more special subtags to identify the list components.  
Definition Lists use <DL> to start the list, <DL> to indicate the glossary item and 
<DD> to identify each item's meaning.  The other two lists use <UL> and <OL> 
respectively  to start the list, and <LI> to identify each component. These Subtags
do not require closing Tags.
	
The structure would look like:
		<UL>
			<LI> text
			<LI> more text
		</UL>
		<OL>
			<LI> text
			<LI> more text
		</OL>
		<DL>
			<DT> glossary term
				<DD> glossary item definition
			<DT> another glossary term
				<DD> another glossary item definition
		</DL>

Sometimes you'd like to display as text in the web page text strings that are HTML Tags.
or interpreted as special characters.  (This page is a prolific example).  The following table
gives an alternate text representation of selected special characters.

6. Hyperlinks
	
To create a hyperlink (or Anchor) from a Web page to another URL destination, use the 
Anchor Tag as follows:
	<a href="destination URL"> text description of destination</a>
		
Examples: To access the URL: http://www.speakeasy.org/~arkay/cis216.html,
 you would write:
<a href="http://www.speakeasy.org/~arkay/cis216.html"> CIS 216 Home Page</a>
and the browser would display:
CIS 216 Home Page

Other Options include:
HREF="Destination URL"
NAME="#text" (To pinpoint a location in a Web Page.)
REL=["next"|"previous"|"parent"|"made"] (Relative)
REV=["next"|"previous"|"parent"|"made"] (Reverse)
TITLE="title">Title</a> (To reference the title of the anchor)
	
In general,  Destinations use the following (case sensitive) syntax (without spaces!):
	Service	://host name:port number/directory path[/filename]
	
Special characters that can be symbolicized within a URL include:
	Space		as %20
	Tab		as %09
	Enter		as %0A
	Linefeed	as %0D
	Percent		as %25
	
Destination Services include:
	 
	Protocol       Meaning
        afs               File accessed via the Andrew File System
        cid               Content identifier for a Mime body part message
        file               Access to a [local] file
        ftp               File accessed via [anonymous] ftp
        gopher        Gopher resource
        http             Hypertext Transfer Protocol resource
        mailserver   Data accessed via a mail server
        mailto          Mail a message to a specified address
        mid              Identifier of a specific mail message
        news           Usenet Newsgroup
        nfs               File accessed via the Network File System
        nntp            Usenet news for local NNTP access only
        prospero      Resource accessed via a Prospero directory server
        rlogin           Interactive rlogin session
        telnet           Interactive telnet session
        tn3270         Interactive 3270 telnet session
        wais             Access to a Wais database
        z39.50          Access to a database via a Z39.50-type query
	
7. Images
	
To display images (pictures) on the web page the <img> Tag is used.  The Tag
has numerous options but only the src option is required.  
	
Most graphical browsers are set to support only two graphical formats: GIF and JPEG
	
The Syntax for this tag is:
	<img src="destination" [option=value]>
	
Options include:
	SRC="destination" (destination is the path to the *.gif or *.jpeg, *.jpg file containing the image)
	ALIGN=alignment (Aligns the subsequent object to
		TOP, MIDDLE, or BOTTOM of image, as specified.
	ALT="text description of image"	 (provides a verbal description of the image for text browsers).
	ISMAP (provides an image map with multiple click spots.)
	BORDER=n (Border pixel thickness that surrounds image)
	HEIGHT=n (Height of image in scan lines)
	HSPACE=n (Space to be added in pixels to the left and right of the image)
	WIDTH=n (Width of image in pixels)
	VSPACE=n (Space to be added in pixels to the top and bottom of the image)
	
References: 

1. Barry Rosenberg, Hands-on Korn Shell Programming, Addison-Wesley, 1999

2. Dave Taylor, Creating Cool Web Pages with HTML, ITG Books, 1995

3. Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy, HTML The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition, O'Reilly & Associates, 1998

4. Beginning html at www.htmlgoodies.com
5. Web Design Group HTML Reference
6. Vancouver B.C. Meta-Tag Builder
7. Vancouver B.C. HTML Tool Index

Questions about the questions? Send mail to Robert Katz: rkatz@ned.highline.ctc.edu
Last Update October 13, 2004