BEGINNING HTML

HTML stands for hypertext markup language. It is the language we use to tell the computer how we would like it to display our webpage. Before we begin, you should create a folder in which you will store all of your pages, images, and sounds. Let's call it "web".

Second, locate these characters on your keyboard:

< this symbol is found on the lower row with the comma
> this symbol is found on the lower row with the period
/ this symbol is found on the lower row with the question mark

You're ready to begin. If you are on a PC, open NOTEPAD.

If you are on a Mac, and using OSX, open TextEdit. Then, on the menu bar, select TextEdit and Preferences. In the window that opens make sure that the "New Document Attributes" is set to "plain text". Earlier Macs had a program called SimpleText. If you are running an "older" Mac, you'll want to use that program.

All commands in html--that is the commands we give to the computer--are surrounded by these brackets: < > and are called tags.

For most commands, we will need to give the computer an opening tag--command to begin-- and a closing tag, or one to end. Closing tags look like opening tags with one difference--they have a forward slash. Now, let's give the computer an opening tag that tells it to begin reading html.

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