Write Your Own Web Page (1)
Most simple web pages are written in what is called "Hypertext Mark-up
Language" (HTML)
The text is "marked-up" using "tags" Tags are instructions to the
computer about how to display the letters in the text.
They are written inside brackets <like this> and usually
come in pairs, for example, <CENTER> and
</CENTER> (notice the American spelling)
In this case, the words between the two tags will be centered on the
page,
It doesn't matter whether you use capital letters or lower case in the
tags, but capitals stand out better when you look at the code later on.
The first tag tells the computer what language the page is written in
<HTML> and the last tag is its partner
</HTML>.
The rest of the page is divided into <HEAD> and
<BODY>.
Like this:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Your message to the world goes here
</BODY>
</HTML>
If you have Notepad, type all of the above into a blank page, with your
own "Message to the World." Save it as MyPage.htm (Use your own title,
if you wish,) Choose Save as type: All Files(*.*)use ".htm" not ".txt")
If you don't have Notepad, you can use Word but you must
File>Save as..> Save as type: Text Only and give it the
name MyPage.htm
Don't forget where you have saved it! (You might like to make a new
folder in My Documents - I called mine "Web")
To see your page, in your browser - probably Internet Explorer - click
File > Open > Browse, find your file and Open.
You should see Your message to the world printed at the top of the
screen.
Use your BACK button to return to this page.
If your browser will let you, try clicking View > Source (In
Netscape or Firefox View > Page Source)
Alternatively, try File > Edit
If either of these works, you may be able to see the code used to
produce this page. It is fairly simple, which is why the layout is
rather boring!
For how to make your text look more interesting, go to the next lesson!