Setting up the basic format of a webpage.


All webpages must contain the same two basic codes - <HTML>, <BODY> at the top of your file and their closing codes, </HTML>, </BODY> at the bottom of your file. Everything that is contained in between them on your page is a mix-and-match "free for all". It is common to also use the <HEADING> and <TITLE> commands so that you will have a name for your page that will be listed at the top bar of the web browser, but if you don't use these two codes, your page will still work. The following is the basic skeleton structure to all webpages.

<HTML>
<HEADING>
<TITLE>The name of your page goes here</TITLE>
</HEADING>
<BODY ---background, body text and linking text color attributes go here--- >

-----your page content information------


</BODY>
</HTML>


Understanding the basic structure and formatting codes.

<HTML> - Tells the web browser that the file is a webpage layout document instead of another type of file (such as a graphic), and enables the browser to read your page and interpret it as such.

<HEADING> - Alerts the browser that the next set of codes contain information about the page that does not actually go on it, but rather in either the title bar at the top, or are key words for the internet search engines.

<TITLE> - The code that defines what will go in the browser's title bar.

<BODY> - Tells the browser that the following information is the content matter of your page.


Common codes used within the body of a webpage for formatting your information are:

<STRONG> - Defines bold text.

<EM> - "Emphasize", which defines italic text.

<CENTER> - Centers elements

<P> - "Paragraph", which begins a new paragraph and inserts extra space after it.

<BR> - "Break" or forced line break - equivalent to a soft return in page layout programs.

<BR><BR> - Double line break, equivalent to using the paragraph <P> code. This is used when you need space above and below a graphic that is on a line by itself without any text with it.

<H1> - "Hierarchy Level One" - Heading style of text. This creates a large size, bold text format used for creating titles. This code will also add space below it to separate it from the next line of text or graphics.

<H2> - "Hierarchy Level Two" - the same code as the <H1> code, but creates a heading that is smaller in size than the <H1> code. The larger the number after the "H" in this code, the smaller the size the text will be.

<HR> - "Horizontal Rule" - creates a horizontal rule accross the page.

<TABLE> - Sets the beginning of a table.

<TR> - "Table Row", begins a new row within a table.

<TH> - "Table Heading", begins a cell with heading type text. The size of the text typed in this cell will be the same as your default body text, but will be in bold face.

<TD> - "Table Data", begins a cell with regular style body text.

<FONT> - Allows you to specify type face, color and size.


The above list is just a sampling of the many HTML codes available, but these are the most common ones. All formatting codes need to have a closing code to discontinue their function. Whatever function you need to end, all you do is type the same code that you used to begin the function, but have a slash "/" in front of it (i.e. </HEADING>, </TITLE>, </STRONG>, </CENTER>, etc.).


















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