HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and
it's used behind the scenes to construct the layout of website pages. Forget
about the fancy colors, images and slide shows for a minute and think about a
research paper that needs an introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction
is always at the top of the page, the body is in the middle and the conclusion
is at the bottom.
HTML is used to set up blocks of pages into table formats.
First there's a <header>, then a <body> and finally a
<footer>. Those HTML tags open the section and a backslash closes them.
For instance, all of the header information will be placed between
<header> and </header> and all of the footer information is placed
between <footer> and </footer>. From there you can add variables to
each section as you see fit.
<header width="800" height="250">
HEADER IMAGE </header>
Numbers in HTML equate to pixels, so the header section of
code above will be 800 pixels wide and 250 pixels high. You can create an image
in a simple paint program, save it, and use it in your header section like
this:
<header width="800" height="250">
<img src="your-header-image.jpg"> </header>
Then you can start your body section: <body> This is
my first website using HTML </body>
Be sure to end your header section before starting your body
section. If you haven't heard of
CSS, Cascading Style Sheet, you
should start to familiarize yourself with that language at the same time
because the two go hand in hand. CSS is used to make the background of the page
green, the header section red, the color of your links blue, the font size and
colors of each section and much more.
For instance, CSS will designate all <header> text to
be Times New Roman, while all <body> text is Currier New. Also, every
time you create a <table></table> the contents will be centered in
each field. CSS coding is done on a separate document so that it controls your
entire website design from a single page. For instance, it would be easy for me
to change the height of the <header height="250"> by going into
the HTML and changing it. However, what if I already copied and pasted the
header onto 500 other pages? It wouldn't make sense to go into 500 pages to
change a little piece of information.
CSS Page: header {height:250px;}
HTML Page: <header> IMAGE </header>
Now, every single <header> section of my website will
be set at a height of 250 pixels. If I change it on the CSS page it will also
change across every page of my website. That's why it's important to
incorporate the two languages together at the beginning of your project.
Don't overwhelm yourself with every single line of code in
HTML and CSS because, before you know it, you'll be moving onto a more advanced
coding language such as PHP. You can use websites online to find particular
lines of code you need each time you need it. Before you dive into code you
should have drawn a basic layout of what you want to create. Then search,
"HTML code to change header width" or "CSS code to insert
background image". Try not to get frustrated if your code isn't working,
trust me it's YOU making the mistake. If you forget a "/" or a
">" to close a tag your code will not work.
Creating
Visits is a company in New Hampshire that builds websites using HTML
and CSS. We also offer NH
SEO services if you want to show up in search engines for certain
keywords and phrases.
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