The Hyper Text Markup Language

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Table of Contents

Control Tags
These tags control the entire page.
HyperText Tags
Control HyperMedia, embeding, and images.
Text Tags
Used to manipulate text.
List Tags
Make cool lists.
Form Tags
Create fill-out forms.
Table Tags
Help organize data.
Frame Tags
Even better then tables.
Scripting Tags
Tags to define scripts.
Mapping Tags
Special tags for Client sides maps
Figure Tags
Advanced images
Entities
Used for special characters.
Color Chart
The color chart showing which color is which.
Key and Glossary
How to read this page (if needed) and glossary of terms.
Acknowledgements
Who to thank and why.
Other Pages
Some other pages, written by me that you might be intrested in.
About The Author
Some info on me

Control Tags

<!doctype html public "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
Cryptic message for the browser to tell it if this really is a HTML page, rarely used.
<HTML>
This tag declares everything that follows up to it's closing a HTML document.
<HEAD>
This tag is usually used immediately after the HTML tag, the space between its opening and closing are reserved for data not directly effecting the appearance of the page, TITLE, and META information for example.
<TITLE>
Specifies the title of the document.
<META>
Important information to those viewing its source.
NAME="name"
The name of the information.
CONTENT="content"
The actual content.
HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"
The type of information browser-wise
<BODY>
Declares the main body is, no plain text should be out of this tag.
BGCOLOR="color"
The background color of the document.
BACKGROUND="URL"
The URL of the background image to be used instead of BGCOLOR.
TEXT, LINK, VLINK, ALINK="color"
The colors of regular text, links, visited links, and an active link (currently clicked on).
<BASE>
Signifies the URL of all links, i.e. Someone downloads a page and wants to view an image that wasn't downloaded, it looks at the BASE tag and finds the URL to look for the picture, instead of the computer of whoever download (http://www.best.com/~mcguirk/graphics/world.gif instead of file:///c:/web/graphics/world.gif), don't close.
HREF="URL"
The URL for graphics and links.
TARGET="target"
The window target to load pages.
<BASEFONT>
Defaults the size of all text withing the page, don't close.
SIZE="size"
The size to default to.
<!--comments-->
Hides all the words in this tag, for viewing source, don't close.
<LINK>
Defines a relationship with two pages.
REL="relationship"
Defines the basis of the relationship
REV="relationship"
Works like REL but backwards (I think)
HREF="URL"
The URL of the page

HyperText Tags

<A>
Stands for anchor, a link or anchor declaration.
HREF="URL"
The actual URL is placed here, everything between the opening and closing of form of A is "clickable".
TARGET="windowname"
Loads the page into the frame of window windowname
NAME="name"
Anchor declaration for same-page links, when linked to by HREF, use a # in the beginning, don't close this version.
<IMG>
A static image unless between an A HREF tag.
SRC="URL"
The URL of the image.
ALT="text"
The text to be shown if the image can't be downloaded.
ISMAP
Declares the image as an image map
USEMAP="URL"
Defines the map to use for client side image maps.
ALIGN="left|right|top|texttop|middle|absmiddle|baseline|bottom|absbottom"
Aligns the graphic to the text.
WIDTH="width" HEIGHT="height"
Allows you to specify the size of the image.
BORDER="value"
The width of the border in pixels.
VSPACE="vspace" HSPACE="hspace"
The distance of the spcae vertically and horizontally.
<EMBED>
Embeds a file into the page to be viewed by an external viewer.
SRC="URL"
The URL of the file.
AUTOSTART=" TRUE | FALSE "
Toggles the starting of a video or sound on page loading. (Netscape 3.0 only)
LOOP=" TRUE | FALSE "
Toggles the looping of a video or sound. (Netscape 3.0 only)
CONTROLS=" TRUE | FALSE ":
Toggles the controls on a video screen. (Netscape 3.0 only)

Text Tags

<H#>
Makes selected text a header from 1 to 6 with 1 being the largest.
<B> | <STRONG>
Boldens the text.
<I> | <EM>
Renders the text in italics.
<TT> | <DFN> | <CODE> | <CODE> | <SAMP> | <KBD> | <VAR> | <CITE>
Renders the text in a fixed-width font.
<FONT>
Changes the text's color or size.
COLOR="color"
The color to specify.
SIZE="size"
The size from 1 to 7 with 1 being the largest.
<ADDRESS>
Creates a special italic line for an address such as E-mail.
<SMALL>
Makes the text smaller.
<BIG>
Makes the text larger.
<SUB>
Subscripts the text.
<SUP>
Superscripts the text.
<P>
Specifies a paragraph.
ALIGN="left | center | right"
Aligns the text in the paragraph to either left, center, or right.
<BR>
Forces a line break, don't close.
<CENTER>
Centers the text.
<HR>
A horizontal line.
SIZE="size"
The width of the line in pixels.
WIDTH="pixels | percent%"
The width of the line in either pixles of percentage wise.
ALIGN="left | center | right"
Alignment of the line.
NOSHADE
Turns off the shadow of the line.
<CENTER>
Centers everything between it's tags.
<DIV>
Page division, used for alignments.
ALIGN=LEFT | CENTER | RIGHT
Aligns the text is divisions.
<PRE>
Somewhat like TT except every space and line break.
<XMP>
All HTML between these two tags is removed.
<PLAINTEXT>
All HTML from this tag on, is removed.
<TAB>
Used for horizontal tabs, don't close.
ID="name"
The name of the tab.
TO="name"
The tab to even out with, ie, the tab t1 was defined by a TAB ID tag, on the next line, the tag TAB TO=t1 is used, so now the text is indented to the point of t1
ALIGN="LEFT | CENTER | RIGHT
Use alone, siwthcs all text on the other side of this tag to that alignment.
<BLINK>
Causes the text to blink

List Tags

<LI>
An item in most any list, don't close.
<OL>
An ordered list, starting with 1, and going up, uses LI's.
START="value"
The starting number of the list.
TYPE="A | a | I | i | 1"
Used for an OL list, specifies what type of numeral, capital letters, lower-case letters, capital romans, lower-case romas, or numerical.
<UL>
An unordered list using LI's.
TYPE="disc | circle | square"
Used for an UL list, specifies what type of bullet.
<DL>
A definition list using DT's and DD's, don't close.
<COMPACT>
Compacts the list.
<DT>
A term in the definition list.
<DD>
A definition in the definition list, don't close.
<LH>
List Header.

Form Tags

<FORM>
The starting point of a fill-out form.
METHOD="post | get"
Selects which form method to use.
ACTION="URL"
The URL of the script with which to procsses.
<INPUT>
A type of input, don't close.
TYPE="TEXT | RADIO | CHECKBOX | HIDDEN | PASSWORD | SUBMIT | RESET | BUTTON"
The type of input which is a single line of text, radio (one choice), checkbox (multiple choices), hidden (not seen), password (letters replaced with *), submit (send it), reset (clear), and button.
NAME="name"
The name under which the data will appear.
VALUE="value"
The value which will be sent, with TEXT value, the defult value is here specified.
<TEXTAREA>
A multi-line field, all text between the two tags will be in the box.
NAME="name"
The name under which the data will appear.
ROWS="rows" COLS="cols"
Specifies the size of the box.
<SELECT>
Same effect as a radio input, uses OPTION tags.
NAME="name"
The name under which the data will appear.
<OPTION>
An option for select, what is after the tag is what the option appears as.
VALUE="value"
The value which will be sent.
<ISINDEX>
Tells the browser that this is a searchable index
PROMPT="prompt"
Specifies the prompt for the index.

Table Tags

<TABLE>
Begins a table using TR's as its rows.
BORDER="value"
The width of the table-border in pixels.
WIDTH="percent%"
Defines the width of the table in percentage.
CELLSPACING="value"
Defines the spacing between cells.
CELLPADDING="value"
The distance between the data and the edge
<CAPTION>
The caption for the table.
<TR>
Declares a table row, using TH's and TD's as its collums.
<TH> | <TD>
Delcares either a table header, or table data.
ROWSPAN="value"
Specifies how many rows the cell takes.
COLSPAN="valye"
Specifies how many collums the cell takes.
VALIGN="top | center | right"
Aligns the data vertically
ALIGN="top | center | right"
Aligns the data horizontally
NOWRAP
Disallows the breaking of words to fit cell width.

Frame Tags

<FRAMESET>
Declares a set of frames.
ROWS="pixels | percent%" | COLS="pixels | percent%"
Declares the layout of the frameset, in either rows or collums.
<FRAME>
An actual frame decleration, don't close.
SRC="URL"
The URL for the frame to load.
NAME="name"
The name of the frame for targetting.
NORESIZE
When declared, the frame can't be resized.

Scripting Tags

<SCRIPT>
Specifies what part of the page is used for a script.
LANGUAGE="language
The language the the script is in (usually JavaScript)

Client Side Image Maps

<MAP>
Defines a map to be used with USEMAP for IMG
NAME="mapname"
Name of map
<AREA>
An area of the image map, don't close, inbetween MAP tag.
SHAPE="RECT | CIRCLE | POLY | DEFAULT"
The type of shape, either a rectangle, circle, polygon, or default.
COORDS="pixels
Defines to coordanites, for rectange the order is left, up, right, down, for polygon, each vertex, and for circle, the center point, and then radius.
HREF="URL"
The URL of the area
NOHREF
Specifies a nonlinked area.

Figures

<FIG>
Defines an image with more controls, text between will be wraped around
SRC="URL"
The URL of the image
ALIGN=" BLEEDLEFT | LEFT | CENTER | RIGHT | BLEEDRIGHT"
Aligns the image to either the window's left edge, left text margin, center, right text marign, or window's right edge
<CAPTION>
Caption of the image
<CREDIT>
Gives credits to someone for the graphic
<OVERLAY>
Overlays the base graphic with another one.
SRC="URL"
The URL of the overlaying image

Entities

&amp;
Types out an amperstand (&).
&quot;
Types out a quotation mark (").
&lt;
Types out a lesser-then sign (<).
&gt;
Types out a greater-then sign (>).
&copy;
Prints a copyright sign (©).
&reg;
Prints out a registered sign (®).
<FONT SIZE="1"><SUP>TM</SUP></FONT>
While not an entity, this produces a trademark symbol (TM).
For more characters, check out this page

Color Chart

(white) green teal gray
purple aqua blue lime
silver red maroon fuschia
yellow olive navy black

Key and Glossary

Syntax

This is the tag name
A short description.
Name of an attribute
A description of the attribute.

Key

|
Meaning "or" when a list is seperated by |'s then you may choose what ever one you choose.
italic
Meaning your choice.

Glossary

Tag
An HTML element.
Attribute
An addition to the tag to define more specificly what it is to do.
Entity
A special charatcer, don't close.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The address of a WWW site. Other words for it are URI and URN (identifier and name)

Acknowledgements

Microsoft
For writing the page "Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 HTML Specification" which was my primary refrence for HTML 2.0 tags.
Netscape
For writing the pages "Extensions to HTML", "Extensions to HTML 3.0", "Netscape Frames", and "JavaScript Devolper's Guide" which were my primary refrence for Netscape 1.0 and 2.0 tags, and of course for creating Netscape Navigator.
World Wide Web Consortium
For writing the page "HyperText Markup Language Specification Version 3.0"
Countless Pages
For Insperation and code
The Best
For Internet Acsses

Other Pages

AutoCGI
A CGI Generator
CGI Tutorial
A tutorial on how to write CGIs for yourself

About The Author

I am James Lee Corbett. I've used html since June 5th and I've learned most of this.

Back to my Home Page