Introduction | Sams Teach Yourself HTML in 10 Minutes (4th Edition)

If you're reading this book, you must have some idea of what HTML is, right? Maybe you already know that HTML is the language of the Internet and that far from being a complex programming language requiring years to perfect, HTML is actually a simple markup language that you can learn very quickly. XHTML is the latest version of HTML. You'll learn more about how these two standards work together to create Web pages in later chapters.

You're probably thinking that if you knew how to create documents in HTML, you could help your company earn more money, or better yet, help you earn more money.

What you probably don't know is how to get started. How do you learn that language and what's it going to cost?

What You Need to Know Before Using This Book

Guess what? You can create HTML documents on any computer system because HTML works the same on any type of computer. Even better, you can use software that you already own to do it. Any kind of text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad) can be used.

Because we're covering a lot in 10 minutes, it will certainly help as you go through this book if you already have some basic computer skills (including the ability to use a word processor, some understanding of how to use directories and filenames on your computer system, and some experience using a Web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer).

About the Sams Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes Series

Sams Teach Yourself HTML in 10 Minutes uses a series of lessons that walk you through the basics of HTML, and then moves on to more advanced features of the language. Each lesson is designed to take about 10 minutes and each is limited to a particular feature, or several related features, of the HTML language. There are plenty of examples and screen shots to show you what things look like. By the time you finish this book, you should feel confident in creating your own HTML documents for the World Wide Web. You can even use HTML to provide unique and valuable services to your organization, or to tell the world about yourself.

Special Sidebars

In addition to the explanatory text and other helpful tidbits in this book, you will find icons that highlight special kinds of information.

Plain English sidebars appear whenever a new term is defined. If you aren't familiar with some of the terms and concepts, watch for these flagged paragraphs.

Caution sidebars alert you to common mistakes and tell you how to avoid them. These paragraphs also explain how to undo certain features, and highlight differences between HTML and XHTML.

Tip sidebars explain shortcuts (for example, key combinations) for performing certain tasks.

Note sidebars present pertinent pieces of information related to the surrounding discussion.

Conventions Used in This Book

The creation and editing of HTML documents can be done using any one of a wide variety of editing tools. You'll find many excerpts from HTML documents that illustrate the points being made. These fragments look like this:

<html> <head><title>This is the Title of Your Page</title></head> <body>This is the document text surrounded by HTML tags.</body> </html>

If you're working along with the examples, you might want to enter the HTML fragments into your own HTML documents as you move through the lessons.

Web Browser Screen Shots

Web browsers (such as Internet Explorer and Netscape) are used to interpret HTML documents for your computer. There are many different types of Web browsers (some with more bells and whistles, some with less), but they all do essentially the same thing. You'll find out about some of these differences (and how to avoid problems) as we move through the lessons in this book. To avoid confusion, all the Web browser screen shots in this book were taken from Internet Explorer.