Web Page Creation Part I CS27101 Introduction to Web Interface Design Prof. Angela Guercio
Objective In this lecture, you will learn: What HTML is and what XHTML is How to create an (X)HTML file The (X)HTML syntax more syntax in next lecture You will experiment (X)HTML and apply the concepts hands on.
Let s answer a few questions What is HTML? Hyper Text MarkUp Language A language to describe the formatting and the layout of content of your web page. What is XHTML? XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) An extension of HTML Standards available at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Time for your first hands on! Goal: Observe a simple text file. Activity: Create a.txt file, save it with the.htm or.html extension and open it with a web browser. 1. Open Notepad (Start Program Accessory ) 2. Now close the dialog box, go to File, Edit with Notepad and continue editing 3. In the file write your name and postal address in the same way you would do on an envelope. 4. In File Name save as Myaddress.html in any folder you like 5. Go to the folder where you saved your file and double click on the icon of your file. It will be open with your default browser. What do you see? 6. Go back to your file and change the address with the school address. Save (CTRL S) 7. Do you see any change in the page? Reload the page. Do you see the changes now?
Web Page Creation Create a document by using a mark-up language HTML or XHTML Web Browsers show ASCII text files, i.e. *.txt = text file *.html or *.htm = HTML files Software is available to facilitate the Web page creation.
Web Browser Web browser display Web pages make any effort to display on the best way for laptop with smaller screen text is rearranged formatting from text files is not preserved (e.g. break lines are gone!). Web browsers dynamically rework the files to fill the display window as best as it can Web browsers rework each page for each visitor
What do I need to start? Do I need to be online while creating my page? No, you can be offline You need to be online only when you publish the page Which Software do I need? A text editor NotePad or A Friendly Web Editor is available in old browsers like Netscape and SeaMonkey or Dreamweaver or Any other web editor, i.e. FrontPage (not supported anymore) SeaMonkey, (the successor of Netscape) etc.
Web Page: Basic Since Web browsers read text files we can get a text file and display it the Web browser. A Web server is not needed during page design you can be offline It is needed only at publication time
HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is a language that gives the author control over the web browser set of HTML elements or tags insert a HTML element to add to a content or a style to a Web page Instructions are issued through a series of TAGS - which are shown in <brackets> Basic HTML Elements HTML, HEAD, TITLE, BODY
Editing HTML files Use Notepad (Windows) or SimpleText (Mac) for now. do not use Word Word file saved as HTML invoke a HTML Converter which is not what you want when you are writing HTML files! or save it Text Only with Line Breaks If you prefer a more friendly web editor, use Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Netscape Composer, SeaMonkey Composer, ect.
TAGS <html>..</html> They can be nested inside other tag pairs <HTML> contains everything the browser need to know about the Web Page <head> </head> contains information not shown in the browser s Web page display <title> </title> contains the title element that appears in the browser window s title bar <body> </body> Contains the text and the graphics to display
Tags details Tags are NOT case sensitive: <TITLE> and <title> are the same MOST tags start with the command and end with a slash(/) ie. <TITLE>. </TITLE> However there are a few tags that do not require to be terminated <br /> Break new line <HR /> Horizontal Row next line/page Spacing the content inside a TAG is important, spacing outside of the TAG s is NOT important
Time for more Practice TO DO: 1. Create a file with Notepad 2. Insert the tags in the following way <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> My First Web Page </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> This is only a test! </BODY> </HTML> 1. Save the file as FirstPage.html 2. Open the page with a Web browser 1. Where does the text in the Title appear? 2. Where does the text in the Body appear?
Web Page Development Cycle 1. Save your file with the Save command 2. Reload the new file 3. Review the new Web page with you Web browser 4. Revise you page as needed Repeat 1-4
Old free web editors - Instructions for Netscape and SeaMonkey 1. Open Netscape 7.2 (or SeaMonkey) 2. Click on File New Composer Page. 3. Click on Source Code (on the bottom of the page) 4. Paste the content of the previous HTML file 5. Save it 6. Click on Browse to Preview your file
Web Page Development Cycle 1. Modify the file 2. Save it 3. Reload the page in your web browser, ex. Click on Browse to reload the file with Seamonkey Click on Live View to see the live page in Dreamweaver 4. If you desire to change something go back to the file and restart step 1. Keep performing this cycle until your page is ready to be made public.
Formatting Tags: Heading Heading element (do not confuse with HEAD!) are used for a title inside the body of the Web page 6-sizes <H1> very large </H1> <H6> very small </H6>
Formatting: Heading (cont.) The alternative to heading is the tag <big> and <small> More convenient You can add more than one <big> or <small> in line. You will be limited by the display ability of the browser.
Attributes Attributes can be added to elements Attributes go INSIDE the angle brackets! A few examples of attributes align is used to justify bgcolor used to indicate the background color border used in tables ect.
Formatting Tags: Align Align is used to justify Left, right, center Example: <h1 align=center> very large </h1> <h6 align=right> very small </h6>
Styles Tags: <STRONG>..</STRONG> General for Bold text <EM>..</EM> General for Italic text <U> </U> General for underlined text
More tags: Paragraph <P> </P> breaks the text into blocks of text set off by blank lines no indentation Remember: Title and paragraphs add clarity to the Web page and make it easier to read.
Tags: Lists Bulleted lists <UL>..</UL> unordered list Enumerated list <OL>.. </OL> ordered list Each item in the list is marked with tags <LI>..</LI> </UL>, </LI>, and </OL> are optional but use it anyway Ordered lists of books <ol> <li> book 1 <li> book 2 </ol> 1. book 1 2. book 2 Unordered lists of books <ul> <li> book 1 <li> book 2 </ul> book 1 book 2
Fonts Different computers have different fonts. What font will the Web browser will choose if your font is not available? Tag: <FONT> Attribute FACE Sans serif fonts: Arial, Geneva, Helvetica Serif fonts: Times New Romans, Times Monospaced fonts: Courier New, Courier Pick a selection: <FONT FACE = Arial, Geneva, Helvetica > The browser will choose the first available.
Fonts Tag: <font> </font> Attribute FACE Sans serif fonts: Arial, Geneva, Helvetica Serif fonts: Times New Romans, Times Monospaced fonts: Courier New, Courier Pick a selection: Example <font face= Arial, Geneva, Helvetica > The browser will choose the first available.
Fonts Attributes Size chart COLOR= the color for Color setting SIZE=+2 Size 1 = 8pts Size 2 = 10pts Size 3 = 12pts Size 4 = 14pts Size 5 = 18pts Size 6 = 24pts Size 7 = 36pts for the change of the current size Example <font color = Orange size = 6> Hello! </font> will display Hello!
Blanks, Comments, etc. Insert blanks lines or extra white space characters in the code Do you see the line or the space on the webpage?   inserts a white space <!-- comment here --> for comments <br /> inserts line breaks <hr /> draws an horizontal line
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