how web pages are built

Although web sites may seem enormously complex (and some of them are), the underlying technology is relatively simple. If you're comfortable using a computer, you could learn the basics in a day.

Every page on the web is created and delivered as a plain text document, containing the words that will appear on the web page, as well as instructions for how they should appear, and what else should appear with them.

HTML tags are like stage directions. They tell each element on the page when to appear and what to do.

These instructions about where the page elements should be placed and what they should do are written in HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language. HTML uses a collection of "tags" (words or abbreviations sandwiched between angle brackets < >) to give the browser directions about how the page should look. You can think of these tags like stage directions: They tell each element when to appear and what to do. (To visualize how an HTML file translates into a web page, see picturing how HTML works, p. 194.)

Most HTML tags are relatively simple. A <p> tag creates a new paragraph. A <b> tag makes text bold. <img> brings in an image. And <table> creates you guessed it a table. One thing to know about HTML tags is that they come in pairs. There's an opening tag, like <b>, and a closing tag, with a slash, like </b>.

So if you have the sentence: "I love sesame chicken from Mama Buddha." And you want the word "love" to be bold, your HTML would look like this:

 <p> I <b>love</b> sesame chicken from Mama Buddha </p> 

And the words will appear like this on the web page:

I love sesame chicken from Mama Buddha

<p> </p> started and ended the paragraph. <b> </b> started and ended the bold text.

As web pages grow more complex, they pull in other things: images, animation, audio, video, even interactive multimedia and small applications. But at its core, the web is still based on HTML.

creating an html document

Since HTML documents are just text documents, they can be created with any text editor, like SimpleText, Notepad, or Microsoft Word. But there are other ways to create a web page, and they don't all require you to know HTML.

3 ways to create an HTML document:

1. With a template-based system like the ones offered by web-hosting services. You just choose a design template, and don't worry about the HTML

2. With an HTML editor like Dreamweaver You decide how the page should look, and the program creates the HTML.

3. With a text editor like Notepad. This method is often called "hand-coding" because you craft the HTML yourself.

Learning HTML?

The Webmonkey Teaching Tool

http://www.webmonkey.com/teachingtool/