MIS 114

Web Page Essentials

Project 1: Getting Started with HTML

Lesson 1: What Is HTML?

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language is used to create pages on the World Wide Web.

At a minimum, a page will contain a pair of :

HTML tags
HEAD tags
TITLE tags and
BODY tags

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>This appears on the user's Web Browser's "Title Bar".</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
All text, graphics, links, etc. the web author wishes to be displayed in the viewer's browser window goes here.
</BODY>
</HTML>

Lesson 2: HTML and Browsers

Browsers (Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Lynx, ...)

are computer programs used to view and navigate pages on the World Wide Web.

Pages

are computer files written in HTML converted by the viewer's browser into a readable image.

URL

Universal Resource Locator is the address of the web page file on the WWW. In Netscape Navigator it appears in the Location "text box."
A URL consists of (from right to left):

the web page filename, (if a filename is not given; the file, index.html or index.htm is displayed);
the directory path to the file (the first slash "/" is the site's root directory or folder, subsequent slashes "/" separate directory names in the file's path;
the domain type, e.g., .edu, .com, .gov, .net, ...;
the local host domain name (and sub-domains, if any, separated by periods, ".");
the name of the computer hosting the file, at many sites their is a single "computer/domain" name; and
the URL protocol, e.g., http://, ftp://, gopher://,....

e.g., http://aslnx1.asb.uah.edu/~awhitten/MIS146/project1.htm

filename, project1.htm;
directory path, /~awhitten/MIS146/;
domain type, .edu;
host domain name, uah, sub-domain, asb
computer name, aslnx1; and
URL protocol, http://

Lesson 3: HTML and the World Wide Web

The number of web pages being posted on the WWW by commercial companies; educational institutions; national, state, and local government agencies; non-profit organizations; many other entities; and individuals is growing at a phenomenal rate.

HTML 2.0 is made up of tags that can be almost universally read by any browser on the Internet. HTML 3.2 was introduced as the new hypertext markup language standard in Jan. 1997. In April 1998, HTML 4 became the current standard. For more information on HTML development visit the W3 Consortium site.

HTML pages are created using text editors (MS NotePad, pico, emacs, vi, ...); word processor applications (MS Word, WordPerfect, ...); HTML editors (HTML Assistant Pro, Hot Dog, Coffee Cup HTML Editor, ...); or Web Page authoring applications (MS Front Page, Netscape Composer, Adobe PageMill, ...).

Lesson 4: HTML Basics

At a minimum a web page consists of:

All the text between <HTML> and </HTML> tags is interpreted by a browser as Hypertext Markup Language.
The <HEAD> and <TITLE> tags are optional, but should be used to give a meaningful brief description of the page.
All the rest of the information in a page is contained between the <BODY> and </BODY> tags.

See Project 5: "Adding Color and Graphics to Your Document" for <BODY> tag options to control web page colors.

Continue to Project 2 or go back to the Table of Contents.

Last updated: Nov. 9, 1998.