10. Special Characters
How do you say...
>>>Æ ñ Þóßÿ ?
NOTE:If the above characters do not display various accents or diacritcal
markers, then your web browser does not support the
ISO character
set. You would likely want to skip this lesson
Objectives
After this lesson you will be able to:
- Use the HTML codes for ISO Latin 1 characters to display accent marks for
non-English letters.
- Override the HTML use of < and > symbols when you need them in a document.
Lesson
Note: If you do not have the working documents from the previous
lessons, download a copy now.
Accent Marks
Sometime you may need to use a special character in an HTML document, an accent
or diacritical mark. The ones that are recognized as known as
ISO
These special characters are marked in HTML as:
&xxxx;
where XXXX is the code name for the special character.
For example, in the "Terminology" section of our Volcano lesson,
we want to add an explanation of a technical term that was used to describe a
particular type of volcanic flow. This term nuee ardente is from the
French term for "glowing cloud";
but to use the proper spelling we need an "acute" accent, so that the word appears as
nuée ardente. In this case, we replace the first e in nuee with
the HTML for the acute accented "e" é:
nuée ardente
For reference, see the
list of special
ISO characters.
Now we will add a sentence to our HTML document that uses an accented letter:
- Open the HTML file, Volc.html in your text editor.
- Under the list of terms of the Volcanology Terminology section enter the text:
The term <I>nuée ardente,</I> or
"glowing cloud" was first used by La Croix (1904)
in his description of the volcanic flows he observed in
the 1902 eruption of Mt Pelée, a historically
active volcano on the island of Martinique.
NOTE: We have applied the acute accent
mark for two "e" letters in this sentence. It may look strange!
Be sure that you replace the letter with the sequence that displays the same
letter with the accent mark.
- Save and Reload the HTML file.
HTML Escape Sequences
The HTML for the accent mark is an example of the more general class of
tags known as escape sequences. In entering HTML so far, you may have
wondered what you do when you need to use a < (less-than) or a
> (greater-than) sign? These two characters, plus the & (ampersand) have
special meaning in HTML and cannot be used as typed. Instead, use the
escape sequences:
< is used for <
> is used for >
& is used for &
Now let's apply one of these symbols in our Volcano lesson. In the
previous: , we added a table that lists
several volcanoes and how much material
was erupted from each. Let's say one of the values (500-600) for Long Valley
is not very accurate (often such values are estimates), and we would like the
entry to read >450 & <700. To do this:
- Open the HTML file, Volc.html in your text editor.
- Under the heading of Volcanoes of Some Well-Known Volcanic Eruptions,
find the line for Long Valley in our table:
Long Valley, California pre-historic 500 - 600
and change it to:
Long Valley, California pre-historic >450 & <700
NOTE: Although we are using the escape sequences within a preformatted
text, note how a web browser properly interprets and displays the
special characters. The escape sequences can thus be used in all portions
of an HTML document including headings and anchor links.
- Save and Reload the HTML file.
Check Your Work
Compare your document with a sample
of how this document should appear. If your
document was different than the sample, review the text you
entered in the text editor. Be sure that you have correctly
bracketed the escape sequences with the & and ; characters.
Review
Review topics for this lesson:
- In HTML, what is the correct way to display a German umlaut (ü)?
- What happens if you do not use an escape sequence for < and > ?
- Why would you need a special escape sequence for the & character?
Independent Practice
In your own HTML document, add a foreign word that requires
a special accent or a mathematical expression that uses the
< or > symbol.
Coming Next....
Build a bibliography using a descriptive list.
Writing HTML Lesson 10: Special Characters
©1995
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI)
Maricopa County Community College District, Arizona
The Internet Connection at MCLI is
Alan Levine--}
Comments to levine@maricopa.edu
URL: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/tut10.html