Overview of HTML/XHTML

Two Different Approaches

Text editor like Notepad HTML editor such as Netscape

Composer, DreamWeaver, FrontPage, GoLive, Nvu, Hotdog, Etc.

Why do it the hard way

Web site development is much more

sophisticated than HTML

XML E-commerce Perl CGI Frames

JavaScript Java Cascading Style sheets DHTML Flash

Some HTML editors do not support some of these technologies, or dont do it well.

What is HTML?
HTML is a special language which tells the

browser how to format text in a www document. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. An HTML file consists of text and tags. XHTML includes minor code changes, and stricter rules for coding.

Syntax
Contains tags that dictate how the content will

appear, i.e. formatting. Examples:

<b>Chris</b> <br /> Applies bold the the word Breaks the line

Some tags include attributes that alter the basic

command, for example:

<h1 align=center>Welcome</h1>

Other Characteristics
The format is text files, with .htm or .html

extension. Hard returns, tabs, and extra spaces do not count. Dont use spaces in file names. File names ARE CASE SENSITIVE. For this class, all file names must be lower case. This will prevent a lot of problems when trying to publish your site.
Tags are not case sensitive for HTML, but for XHTML,

they should all be lowercase.

One More Thing

The first page in a web site should be

named index.htm or index.html. Because its the default filename, it shortens your URL : example: www.cofc.edu/index.htm

Displaying an HTML File

Use any browser software such as Firefox,

Internet Explorer or AOL. Also, use any platformsuch as Windows, Mac, UNIX, Linux.

Beginning Skills
The basic tags for an HTML file Heading tags Paragraph tags Use attributes (such as align) Line breaks Indent with blockquote We will also insert an image

In-Class Practice
OBJECTIVE: Write a webpage about your favorite something. See the tutorial handout. We will simply use HTML, and that will be a good lead-in to differentiate between HTML and XHTML. For practice only; not to turn in. When creating web sites, it is extremely important to organize files in the proper folders

Get Started
Open Windows Explorer Create a folder called favorite Open Notepad Open any browser.
We have Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Firefox