Crash Course in Web Design – Part 1 Basic HTML Tags
Download Source Files: 1-html-basics.zip
The following YouTube video goes over some of the things mentioned in the blog below in regards to HTML tags.
Understanding the basics of HTML tags.
To get a browser to render HTML properly HTML text needs to be wrapped in HTML tags.
An an HTML document, HTML elements are tags, as well as text, which act as indicators to a web browser as to how the document is to be interpreted. An example of a tag is: <p></p>
which is a tag for a “paragraph”.
For example to make a word in HTML bold, wrap the text in a “strong” tag like below:
<strong>Text here</strong> // – - >> Text here
For italic words we’d use “em” for embellish.
<em>Text here</em> // – - >> Text here
If you want to use multiple tags use make sure they are opened and then closed in enclosing method such as:
<tag1><tag2>My words</tag2></tag1>
<strong><em>My words</em></strong> // – - >> My words
Common HTML Tags used in web design
HTML tags commonly have and opening tag and a closing tag such as: <strong></strong>
Tags that have open and closing tags.
Bold - <strong><strong>
Italic – <em></em>
Underline – <u></u>
Paragraph – <p></p>
Text Link – <a href=”http://mysite.com”>Text Link Here</a>
Heading 1 – <h1></h1>
Heading 2 – <h2></h2>
Heading 3 – <h3></h3>
Self closing tags.
The following tags are self closing, meaning they do not have an associated closing tag. Instead they close themselves with “/>”.
Image – <img src=”http://mysite.com/images/image.jpg” />
Line Break - <br />
Horizontal Rule – <hr />
Bulleted List: Lists are an important part of web design. They are commonly used for navigation once they are stylized. Notice first the Unordered List tag “ul” is opened, then List items “li” are added.
<ul>
<li>bullet 1</li>
<li>bullet 2</li>
<li>bullet 3</li>
</ul>
Assignment 1:
- Create a text doc and save it as index.htm
- Code out the tags above to create a page of content
- Search the internet and find three new tags to use
- Test your document by opening it in a browser
Download Source Files: 1-html-basics.zip
Other HTML Resources
There are quite a few other HTML tags that can be used in web design. Just a quick search in Google and you can find quite a few resources.
- http://net.tutsplus.com/
- http://websitetips.com/articles/html/basictags/
- http://addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/download/html-cheat-sheet-v1.pdf
- http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/html_cheatsheet/
Browsers for Web Design
I prefer Firefox as a browser, or Chrome, however when building for web you should test your pages in various browsers as the HTML may render differently in different browsers including Safari, Explorer. Different platforms like Mac, PC, Mobile all render things a bit differently.
I suggest try using Firefox and add the following plugins.
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60 – Web Developer
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843 – FireBug
The Basics of an HTML page
This is a supplementary video that shows the basics of an HTML web page.
Well, that’s it for now, next post in the series will focus on file structure and linking files.
Please help me promote my beta-course by tweeting, Facebooking or sharing with friends. Thanks for your support! – kh
Tags: web crash course, web design
