HTML Tutorial PDF
HTML Tutorial PDF
HTML Tutorial
(version 5.0)
This tutorial is designed to teach you some the basics of HyperText Markup Language (HTML), with an emphasis on transforming a word-processing document into a simple Web page. You can get the most recent version of this tutorial from the CAT website: http://cat.xula.edu/tutorials/
Contents
This tutorial will guide you through the following steps:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Retrieving the necessary materials from the Web Copying text from a word-processing document and pasting it into an HTML template Marking block elements and validating your work Marking inline elements and validating your work Using Netscape Composer Using Word's "Save as HTML" feature. Uploading your files to the Web server
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes a level of competency with basic computing tasks and concepts. You should understand the following terms:
v v v v v Files Folders File hierarchy The desktop The Finder (Mac only)
Conventions
Actions that you need to perform are bulleted, like this: Open the file.
Menu commands look like this: File > Open. This means choose the Open option from the File menu. Sometimes, for the sake of brevity, common menu items may be referred to simply as Save or Open. The same style is used for other user interface elements, such as key you're supposed to press and buttons you're supposed to click, i.e. "Click the OK button." HTML code and URLs look like this:
<BODY BGCOLOR="white">
Names of files and folders, as well as text that you are supposed to type, are rendered in italics.
1. Retrieve Materials
First you must create a folder to hold your files. Create a new folder on the desktop and name it tutorial.
Windows users: You can do this quite simply by clicking on the desktop with your right mouse button and choosing New > Folder from the pop-up menu. Then, without pausing to draw breath, type the word tutorial . Press the Enter key and you're done. Mac users: You can do this quite simply by clicking on the desktop while pressing the Control key; choose New Folder from the pop-up menu. Then, without pausing to think, type the word tutorial. Press the Return key and you're done.
Next, you must retrieve the necessary materials from the Web.
Start Netscape, and point the browser to this URL: http://cat.xula.edu/tutorials/html/ Find the section of the page under the heading Tutorial Materials. Follow the link to All_About_Mustard.doc which is a Microsoft Word Document. Save this file in the tutorial folder you created earlier. (You'll be prompted by Netscape.) Follow the link to template.txt which is a plain text file.
The contents of the file will be displayed in the browser window. It should look like this:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/loose.dtd"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Untitled</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> </BODY> </HTML>
This should look familiar to you. You'll use this raw code as a template for your first Web page. The best way to save this file to disk is simply to copy and paste: Choose Edit > Select All to select all the text. Choose Edit > Copy to copy the selecte d text. Launch a text editor.
Windows users: Use Notepad. From the Windows Start menu, choose Run and enter notepad. Mac users: Use SimpleText. This application can usually be found on the hard drive, in the Applications folder.
In your text editor, select Edit > Paste . The text you copied from your browser should appear in the window of the text editor. Save this file. Name it template.txt and make sure that you are saving it in your tutorial folder. Close your text editor and return to Netscape.
You should now have a Word document and a plain text file in your tutorial folder all the materials you need to complete this tutorial.
Now you need to save a copy of this file, w ithout overwriting our original template. You also need to designate the new copy as a hypertext file, rather than a plain text file. Choose File > Save As Name the file mustard.html and click the Save button, making sure to save the file in your tutorial folder.
Congratulations! You've just created a Web page. It's incomplete, to be sure, but take a moment to see how it looks in your Web browser: Return to Netscape. Choose File > Open Page . (Mac users should choose File > Open > Page in Navigator.) A dialog box should appear. Navigate to your tutorial folder. (Windows users will need to click the Choose File button.) Choose the mustard.html file, and click the Open button.
Your Web page should now be displayed in the browser. Note how all the text is run together. All the extra whitespace and line breaks are ignored by the browser. Here's what you've accomplished so far: by using the template file, you saved yourself the chore of typing out the basic "shell" of the Web page. The template establishes the global structure of the document, including version information and the HEAD and BODY. You've pasted raw text into the BODY of the document. However, you have not yet marked up any of the text, and so the text has no logical structure.
2.1
That's all there is to it. This is what's meant by marking an element. Now check your work: Return to Netscape. The mustard.html page should still be displayed, but the browser is showing the old version. To display the changes you just made, click the Reload button.
The browser should reload the page. It is, in essence, re-reading the file from the disk and getting the new version you just saved. You should observe a very noticeable change in the page's appearance. Now you must continue to mark up the rest of the text. This procedure requires you to exercise some judgment. The following instructions do not tell you exactly what to type. Rather, you will be instructed to "mark all the paragraphs," for example. It is up to you to decide what constitutes a paragraph, and to figure out which tag to use. Refer to the printed Word document and other materials as you need them. You should save your work often, and check your work in the browser often.
Hint: For cleaner, easier-to-read markup, insert carriage returns liberally, whenever you need them. Remember that they will not be visible in the browser.
Return to your text editor. The mustard.html file should still be open. (If not, you will need to open it within your text editor.) Mark all the headings. Remember that headings range from H1 (most important) to H6 (least important). You've already marked a first-level heading, so mark up some secondand third-level ones.
Hint: There are three second-level headings and two third-level headings in the document.
For example, the second heading should be marked to look like this:
<H2>An Abbreviated History of Mustard</H2>
Mark the ordered list (the one that is numbered) with OL tags.
Hint: You are marking the whole list here, not the individual items in the list. <OL> 1. Whisk together dry mustard, vinegar and beer. 2. Use a garlic press or large pair pliers to squeeze the juice from the clove of garlic into the mixture. 3. Stir in sugar, salt and turmeric. 4. To make mustard smoother and less hot, add olive oil to taste. </OL>
Mark the unordered list (the bulleted list of links) with UL tags.
<UL> * Europenne de Condiments http://www.moutarde.com/ A mustard company's website * Mustard Gas http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWmustard.htm A description of mustard gas * Mount Horeb Mustard Museum http://www.mustardweb.com/ The world's largest collection of prepared mustards </UL>
Mark the individual list items in both lists with LI tags. Don't forget to mark up both the Preparation list and the Mustard Links list.
Hint: There are only three items (not nine) in the list of links. <LI> Europenne de Condiments http://www.moutarde.com/ A mustard company's website </LI>
Add a horizontal rule at the end of the page with the HR tag.
Hint: The tag still needs to be in the BODY of the document. Also, remember that this is an empty content tag, so there is no closing tag.
Add some information about how to contact the author of the page after the HR tag. Type something like: This page is maintained by Bart Everson [bpeverso@xula.edu]. Substitute your own name and e-mail address for mine. Mark the line you just typed with ADDRESS tags. Choose File > Save to save your work. Return to Netscape and reload the page to check your work.
Every chunk of text should now be enclosed in one HTML tag or another.
You should notice some problems. The ordered list may have duplicate numbers, and the list of links may have a or * symbol after each bullet. These are artifacts of the conversion from Word to HTML. Also, the list of ingredients is still a jumbled mess. The list of links is also messy. Fix these problems as follows: Return to your text editor. Delete the numbers in the ordered list. They don't need to be explicitly stated. Delete the or * symbols from the list of links. They are also redundant.
What about the list of ingredients? You could mark it as an unordered list, but then it would be bulleted. Besides, you already have one unordered list on the page. Therefore you will mark this as preformatted text. Mark the list of ingredients with the PRE tag. Choose File > Save to save your work. Return to Netscape and reload the page to check your work.
The problems should be fixed, except for the list of links. You will fix that problem in section 4 below.
3.1
Choose File > Save to save your work. Return to Netscape and reload the page to check your work.
If you find the results too garish for your tastes, you can change the BGCOLOR value to lightyellow instead.
3.2
http://validator.w3.org/ This is the W3C's HTML validation service. It allows you to enter a URL for any page that's on the Web and check the validity of its HTML. Since your Web page is not on the Web (yet), follow the "upload files" link toward the bottom of the page.
This will take you to a page which allows you to check the validity of files from your hard drive. Click the Browse button. Navigate to your tutorial folder, select the mustard.html file, and c lick the Open button. Click the Validate this document button.
If you're lucky, you'll get a "No errors found!" message. If not, examine the results to see if you can pinpoint your mistake. Once you've corrected your errors, try to validate your document again. Don't move on to the next section until you succeed.
10
Choose File > Save to save your work. Return to Netscape and reload the page to check y our work.
Observe the results of the changes you just made. Your Web page should now resemble the Word document with which you began.
4.1
Designating Links
It would be nice if the listed websites were clickable links. In this section, you will make them into links by marking them as anchors. Then you'll point the anchors to the appropriate URLs. Return to your text editor. The mustard.html file should still be open. Mark the name of each site as an anchor with the A element. Example: <A>Mount Horeb Mustard Museum</A> Each anchor tag must be expanded to include the HREF (hyper-reference) attribute. <A HREF=" ">Mount Horeb Mustard Museum</A> Each hyper-reference must be set to a URL. In other words, the URL is what goes between the quotation marks.
Hint: Rather than type each URL by hand, simply cut and paste.
Choose File > Save to save your work. Return to Netscape and reload the page to check your work. It's good practice to follow your links and make sure they work.
You should observe some peculiar spacing in your list of links. That's because your now have two BR (line break) tags between each site name and its description. You can fix this quickly: Return to your text editor, and delete the extra BR tags from the list of links. Choose File > Save , then return to Netscape and reload the page.
4.2
11
5.1
5.2
Getting Started
First you need to start Composer. In Netscape, choose Communicator > Composer. A blank page should appear. At first you might think it looks a lot like Netscape Navigator, but take a closer look. The illustrations below show the toolbars for both Navigator and Composer, as they appear in Windows 95:
Remember, Navigator is a browser, with which you view Web pages. Composer is an authoring application, with which you create Web pages.
12
Next, you must recopy the raw text of the Word document. Return to Microsoft Word. Open the file named All_About_Mustard.doc , if it is not already open.
Funny thing about Composer if you just paste the text in as you did before, it would interpret each carriage return as a single line break. But Composer interprets double carriage returns as indicative of paragraphs. So Before each full paragraph, insert an extra carriage return with the Enter key (Windows) or the Return key (Mac). Choose Edit > Select All to select all the text. Choose Edit > Copy to copy the selected text. Return to Composer. Choose Edit > Paste to paste the copied text. Choose File > Save and save your file as mustard_composer.html. Make sure to save it in your tutorial folder.
As you save the page, Composer will prompt you for a page title. It's asking what you want to put between the TITLE tags.
Mac users: If Composer does not prompt you, choose Format > Page Title .
Enter an appropriate title, such as " Sample Web Page Using Composer," then click OK.
5.3
Designating Elements
Now you will designate the elements of the document, much as you did with your text editor. The difference is that you will use Composer's graphical user interface instead of typing HTML manually. You tell Composer what to do, and Composer writes the HTML for you. Click in the first heading. That's the line whic h reads "All About Mustard." Since this is the heading for the whole page, mark it as a first-level heading, by choosing Format > Heading > 1. Or you can use the pop -up menu on the toolbar.
That's all there is to it. That's how you designate an element in Composer. Designate all the headings in the same fashion. Remember that there are six levels of headings, with 1 being most important and 6 being least important. Designate the extended quotation by choosing Format > Paragraph > Block Quote . This optio n does not appear in the pop-up menu on the toolbar. It also does not appear in the Mac version of this program! Mac users should follow the following circuitous route: o o o o Choose Format > Character Info. A dialog box should appear. Click the tab marked Paragraph. Using the "Additional Style" pop-up menu, choose Block Quote . Click the button marked OK.
Designate the unordered lists (lists that are not numbered) by choosing Format > List > Bulletted [sic for Windows version!]. Or you can just click the bulleted list button on the toolbar. o You may wish to delete any extra characters that appear in the list of links, just as you did in the previous section. 13
By default, Composer makes each line in the list a bulleted item. But you don't want the URLs and descriptions to be separate items. To correct this, click at the beginning of each URL. Press your backspace (Windows) or delete (Mac) button until the URL appears on the same line as the site name. Insert a line break by choosing Insert > New Line Break or by pressing Shift + Enter (Windows) or Shift + Return (Mac).
Designate the ordered list (the one that is numbered) by choosing Format > List > Numbered. Or you can just click the numbered list button on the toolbar. You will notice number signs appear before each list item. Add a horizontal rule at the end of the page. o This is a little tricky. Click at the end of the page and your blinking text-insertion cursor should appear at the end of the last line of text, which you marked as a list item. Press Enter or Return to start a new line. However, since you're in a list, the next line will be designated as a list also. You need to "escape" the list. Click the bulleted list button in the toolbar to escape from the list. Click the H. Line button in the toolbar to insert a horizontal rule. Or choose Insert > Horizontal Line.
o o o
Press Enter or Return to start a new line. Add some information about how to contact the author of the page after the horizontal rule. Just type something like: This page is maintained by Bart Everson [bpeverso@xula.edu]. Substitute your own name and e-mail address for mine. Designate the line you just typed as an address by choosing Format > Paragraph > Address. Or you can use the pop-up menu on the toolbar. Select the e-mail address you just typed. Designate this selection as a link by choosing Insert > Link or by clicking the Link button in the toolbar. o o A dialog box should appear. In the field, enter mailto:bpeverso@xula.edu. Substitute your own e-mail address for mine. Click OK. Select the URL. Choose Edit > Copy. Designate this selection as a link by choosing Insert > Link or by clicking the Link button in the toolbar. A dialog box should appear. Paste the URL you just copie d into the field. Since you can't access the Edit menu, you will have to use the keyboard shortcut, which is Ctrl+V for Windows and Command+V for Macintosh. (The command key is sometimes called the Apple key and is next to the spacebar.) Click OK.
14
Designate this selection as a bold or italic by choosing Format > Style > Bold or Format > Style > Italic. You may also click the appropriate button in the toolbar. Notice the lack of an emphasis or strong emphasis option.
Choose Format > Page Colors and Properties (Windows) or Format > Page Properties (Mac). o o A dialog box should appear. Click the option marked Use Custom Colors. From the pop-up menu (marked Color schemes in Windows) choose Black on Lt. Yellow .
5.4
Things should look a little different now. You may also notice some problems. The ordered list may have duplicate numbers, for example. Note that the HTML-generated numbers only showed up as number signs (#) in Composer. You may fix this problems as follows: Return to Composer. An easy way to do this is to choose File > Edit Page. Delete the numbers in the ordered list. They don't need to be explicitly stated. Delete the symbols from the list of links. They are also redundant. Choose File > Save to save your work. Load the page into Navigator by choosing File > Browse Page or clicking the preview button in the toolbar.
The problem should be fixed. Take a moment to examine the source code and see what Composer has done on your behalf: Choose View > Page Source . Examine the HTML code. When you're done, close this window.
5.5
15
Now take a look at the Web page you just created in Netscape Navigator. Return to Netscape. Choose File > Open Page . (Mac users should choose File > Open > Page in Navigator.) A dialog box should appear. Navigate to your tutorial folder. (Windows users will need to click the Choose File button.) Choose the mustard_word.html file, and click the Open button.
The Word-generated Web page should now be displayed in the browser. Wow! That was quick and easy. But if you take some time to look over the page, you may discover that it's not all that great. Take a moment to examine the source code and see what Word hath wrought: Choose View > Page Source . Examine the HTML code. When you're done, close this window.
It may amuse you to know that some Web authoring packages actually offer a feature called Clean Up Microsoft Word HTML. It's also instructive to compare the sizes of the files you've created so far. Open your tutorial folder. o o Windows users: Choose View > Details. Mac users: Choose View > as List .
You may need to expand the window to see everything. Click on the tab marked Size to sort the files by size. Compare the file sizes. Remember that when it comes to Web pages, small is beautiful!
You can try to validate mustard_word.html if you wish, but the results will be the same as with the page generated through Composer.
16
17
7.1
Fill in the information as shown, substituting your own username in the User ID field. The proper host name is webusers.xula.edu. Type in your regular Xavier e -mail password (which will appear as ******) in the Password field. If you are working on your own personal computer, you may also assign a Profile Name and check the Save Password box, then click Save. This will allow you to make a shortcut to your account in the future and not have to enter your password every time you connect. Don't do this if you are at a shared computer! When you're done, click OK.
After you complete the above step, the program should connect to the Xavier Web server, and if you have the 'bells and whistles', you'll hear a sound effect of a train coming through. This is not meant to frighten you. It's supposed to be a good thing.
18
Take a moment to contemplate this marvel of the modern age. Notice that there are two windows. The window on the left shows the local system; the window on the right shows the remote system. The local system is the machine on your desktop, r ight in front of you. The remote system is somewhere else probably in a building somewhere else on campus, though theoretically it could be anywhere from a couple yards to half a world away. In this case, the remote system is the Xavier Web server. You will use WS_FTP to transfer files from your local system to the remote system. Notice the two arrow buttons between the two windows. They may look innocuous, but they're the heart of this program. The arrow which points from left to right is used to copy local files to the remote system. This is called as uploading. The arrow which points from right to left is used to copy remote files to the local system. This is called as downloading.
19
When at last you find your files, you must select them. Hold down the shift key while you the files you wish to upload. Select all the HTML files you created. Don't forget to select mustard.jpg as well.
When all your files are selected, you may upload them to the server. Click the right arrow button in the center of the window. If a dialog box appears asking if you wish to upload the files, click Yes.
WS_FTP will begin uploading. When done, the myhtmltutorial folder in the Remote System window should contain the files you selected for transfer. Check to make sure this is the case. Proceed to section 7.3 below.
20
7.2
Fill in the information as shown, substituting your own username in the User ID field. The proper host name is webusers.xula.edu. Type in your regular Xavier e -mail password (which will appear as ******) in the Password field. When you're done, click OK.
You should now be seeing a listing of your home directory on xavier.xula.edu . Time for a little terminology. Let's talk about the local system and the remote system. The local system is the machine on your desktop, right in front of you. The remote system is the machine you just connected to, and it's somewhere else probably in another building on campus, though theoretically it could be anywhere from a couple yards to half a world away.
You should now see a directory named myhtmltutorial. You may need to scroll down to see it.
21
Select and Add each file you wish to upload. Select all the HTML files you created. Don't forget to select mustard.jpg as well. When you are finished, click Done . Make sure the next dialog box has the following settings: Text Files: Text Other Files: Raw Data Click OK.
Fetch will upload the files. When the upload is complete, the contents of myhtmltutorial in the Fetch window should contain the files you selected for transfer. When you are satisfied that all your materials have been transferred, proceed to section 7.3 below.
7.3
22
8. Cleaning Up
You probably don't want to leave these tutorial files on the server, so you may delete them. Return to your FTP client. Select the files you wish to delete from the remote system. Hold down the shift key to select multiple files. o o Windows users: Click the button to the right of the Remote System Window that is marked Delete . Mac users: Choose Remote > Delete Directory or File
You may now close all running applications. If you are doing this tutorial in a lab, you should also take a moment to clean up the desktop as a courtesy to the next user. Simply drag your tutorial folder to the Recycle Bin (Windows) or the Trash (Mac). Don't forget to shut down your computer and turn off the monitor.
23
A Mustard Recipe
Ingredients 4 Tablespoons Dry mustard powder 1 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar 2 Tablespoons Flat beer 1 Clove Garlic 1 Teaspoon Sugar 1/2 Teaspoon Salt 1/4 Teaspoon Turmeric 1 Tablespoon Olive oil -- optional Preparation 1. Whisk together dry mustard, vinegar and beer. 2. Use a garlic press or large pair pliers to squeeze the juice from the clove o f garlic into the mixture. 3. Stir in sugar, salt and turmeric. 4. To make mustard smoother and less hot, add olive oil to taste.
Mustard Links
Europenne de Condiments http://www.moutarde.com/ A mustard company's website Mustard Gas http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWmustard.htm A description of mustard gas Mount Horeb Mustard Museum http://www.mustardweb.com/ The world's largest collection of prepared mustards
24