Before using WebDesign it is important that you have a brief understanding of HTML and know the basics of writing HTML code.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the language used to create and design web pages. HTML files are simply text documents containing instructions telling the web browser how to format your web page. An HTML document contains HTML tags which are in the form of:
<TAGNAME ATTRIBUTE="VALUE">
Basically the TAGNAME is an instruction for your web browser on what to do. There is a list of TAGNAME's which can be found at HTMLHelp.com. This list also contains instructions on what these tags do. As you can see from the example above, tags can have attributes. Attributes are additional information given to your web browser to read and display the HTML document properly. For example, the <img> (image) tag requires a 'src' attribute that points to the image on your server that your browser should display.
Tags are not limited to just one attribute. They can have many attributes which give web browsers additional information. Some attributes are required, such as the 'src' attribute for image tags while other attributes, such as the 'height' and 'width' attributes for image tags are not required, but recommended.
In some cases an HTML tag may need an ending tag which are simply written as:
</TAGNAME>
For example, to tell your browser to make some text bold you would write;
<B>...bold text...</B>.
<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Web Page Title</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> ...anything that should be displayed in the browser window goes here... </BODY> </HTML>
Any text that is written between the <BODY>
and </BODY>
tags will show up on your web site unless it is incased in (<>). HTML is not case sensitive so <BODY>
and <body>
are seen as the same instructions to a web browser. Some users find it easier to read HTML pages when the tags are written in uppercase, however it is now a common practice to keep all tags in lowercase to maintain compatibility with different kinds of devices.
Fortunately, WebDesign allows you to convert tags to lowercase or uppercase simply by going to HTML Tools->Change Tag Case.
Line Breaks In HTML Pages
As noted above, all text placed with the the <BODY>
and </BODY>
tags, excluding text incased in (<>), will show up in your web browser. This, however, is not entirely true when working with line breaks. Line Breaks are ignored by browsers and this can usually cause confusion for first time web developers.
There are two ways to insert line breaks in your document.
You can use the <BR>
tag which will create a single line break.
These lines of text appear on
<BR>
different lines in your browser
or the;
<P>
...</P>
tag to create a new paragraph which will insert two line breaks around the surrounded text.
(note: </P>
is not required when creating a paragraph, but is highly recommended. It is a good idea to get into the habit of closing all tags that have a required or optional closing tag including <P>, <LI> etc... To learn why, read the section on XHTML in this user manual).
If you would like users to be able to access another web site, or another page on your site, you can use a hyper link to accomplish this. To create a hyperlink either use the drag and drop tools palette to your left or use the Insert menu and select 'Link...'.
Type the address that you would like the link to take the user to in the URL field. Type the text that should be displayed in the browser in the 'Text' field. Click the 'Insert' button and the text will be inserted into your document.
(note: You can leave the Target field blank. This attribute is usually used with frames or to control whether or not the link is opened in a new window. You can press the Help button to learn more about it but in this example you can ignore it.)
Notice the code that is entered;
<a href="http://www.ragesw.com">Rage Software</a>
As you can see the <a>
tag is used to create a link to another web site and the 'href' attribute is used to specify the location of the web site. The text to be displayed in the browser is between the <a>
and </a>
tags. It is a good idea to study the code that is generated by WebDesign's wizards so that you are able to more quickly become familiar with the different tags and attributes in the HTML language.
The following links are all available for free online and will give you more insight into HTML and how to develop and expand your HTML knowledge;
HTML, XHTML and CSS hands on tutorial
http://www.w3.org
http://www.HTMLHelp.com
http://www.w3schools.com