Transcript chapter1

The Web Wizard’s Guide
to HTML
Chapter One
World Wide Web Basics
Chapter Objectives
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Show how Web page authors and computers work
together
Look behind the scenes when a browser displays a
Web page
Explain what HTML is and how Web pages use
HTML
Demonstrate how to create Web pages with nothing
more than a text editor and a browser
Explore the role of HTML standards on the Web
To View the World Wide Web
You Need
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An Internet-ready computer
 An Internet access account
 A Web browser
To Create a Web Site
You Need
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An Internet-ready computer
 A text editor (or Web page construction kit)
 An Internet access account
 A password-protected account on a Web server
Uniform Resource Locator
(URL)
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All Web pages are addressed with URLs
 The URL specifies
– A server name
– A directory path
– A filename
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URLs are part of the HTTP (Hypertext
Transfer Protocol) communications
protocol.
Web Page Displays
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All browsers are designed to display HTML files
as well as some other presentation languages (e.g.
XML, etc.)
 Browsers have to rework their page displays
whenever a browser window is resized
 Web pages can look a lot different on different
computers or different browsers
 Web page authors cannot completely control their
page displays (unlike desktop publishing or word
processing software)
The Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML)
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HTML formatting commands control Web
page displays
 All HTML formatting is achieved with
HTML elements
 All HTML elements are based on HTML
tags and tag-pairs
 HTML files can be created with text editors
An HTML TagTemplate
<html>
<head>
<title>
(insert text for the browser’s title bar here)
</title>
</head>
<body>
(insert visible Web page elements here)
</body>
</html>
HTML Editors
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Pros
– Offer lots of useful features
– Help you avoid tagging errors
– Can save time
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Cons
– Can interfere with HTML mastery
– Can be intimidating for beginners
The Web Page
Development Cycle
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Edit your HTML file
Save your HTML file
Load the file into your Web browser
Review the file with your Web browser
Revise your HTML file with a text editor
Repeat this cycle as often as needed
(SAVE FREQUENTLY)
Industry Standards
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Most HTML tags are in the official HTML
standard
All HTML-compliant browsers recognize the
standard HTML tag set
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Some browsers may display HTML tags differently
from other browsers
Some browsers may add support for tags not
approved by the W3C
Some browsers may add or change the attributes
available for HTML tags
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sets
the industry standard for HTML
Document Type Definition
You can tell the web browser or editor which version
of HTML you are using by inserting the
DOCTYPE SGML tag at the beginning of your
document. This tag specifies what type of
document you are wanting the browser to render,
the version of code you have written the document
in, and the character set that should be used to
display the document.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C/TDT HTML 4.01//EN”>
Non-Standard HTML
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Some HTML tags are browser-specific
extensions to HTML
Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer
do not always recognize each other’s
HTML extensions
Web pages that use non-standard HTML
may not display well for all users
Browser manufacturers create their own
HTML extensions to influence the
industry standard
HTML Validation Services
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A validation service on the Web can check
an HTML file for you
A validation service can be used to
identify tagging errors and HTML
extensions
Some HTML tagging errors are difficult to
locate by manual inspection
If you don’t use an HTML editor, a
validation service can be very helpful