HTML 101

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Would it be feasible for someone familiar with html tags to post instructions here for the simpler effects, italics, bolding, quoting, font sizing, paragraph, linking URL's -- etc. ?

I know those instructions, as posted here, can't include [Left-Arrow] or [Right-Arrow], but couldn't aliases be used to denote these characters, "/" and "+\" for instance?

E.g. /b"text"+b\ with "+" denoting the slash character inside the closing tag?

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 05, 1998

Answers

I have mixed feelings about posting HTML tag info for rank beginners.

HTML is no big secret but can sure cause some nasty hassles to the text in an active thread if improperly used .... comments anyone?

BTW .. I teach HTML (among other computer topics) at the undergrad/postgrad college level...

Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), December 06, 1998.


I see your point.

On occasion I've seen the result when someone forgets to close a formatting tag -- I've done it myself too. That's how I learned. It seems odd that formatting left enabled in one post persists into the next post, but since it does, at least in this forum, I learned to be very attentive to closures.

HTML as interpreted in this forum requires lowercase for opening and closing links; other fora require uppercase; one I know of does not use [doublequotes] to enclose a URL.

Other awkward results I've observed follow misuse of L and R arrows and omission of [double quote] chars at beginning or end of a URL.

No doubt other blunders are possible.

It was just an idea----

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 06, 1998.


Having e-mailed the answer to Tom, it dawns on me that others might want to know that there is an HTML tutorial here on the3 forum. Go back to the list of topics, go down to the "Older Threads" section and click on the SYSOP section. Look for TIPS ON HTML.

jonmiles has done a great job!!!

Chuck

-- Chuck a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 06, 1998.


Tom wrote:
Would it be feasible for someone familiar with html tags to post instructions here for the simpler effects, italics, bolding, quoting, font sizing, paragraph, linking URL's -- etc. ?
You can use View Source to see the html version of this page. With the later versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, simply right-click, then choose this option. For earlier versions of NS, go to the menu bar and click View, then select Document Source.

...then you can see how it was done. But, I recommend first trying the link manuever on a forum which has a preview feature, so you can be sure it works. Otherwise, can be embarressing (I know!).

don't forget the closing tags!

(sorry- couldn't resist :))



-- Max Dixon (Ogden, Utah USA) (Max.Dixon@gte.net), December 06, 1998.

For more info (an edited list of tips given in prior discussions), see HTML Posting Techniques. Not for Pandora.

-- Jon (jonmiles@pacbell.net), December 07, 1998.


Oooh Max, good idea on preview forums. I wonder if Mr. Greenspun could add such a feature here? I bookmarked your link anyway as a practice page. Much easier and faster than using a text file offline. Just make sure you don't hit the submit button on that test page, or the webmaster would have a fit ;)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 07, 1998.

I agree with the concerns expressed above. However, the one thing many users of this forum need to do frequently is to post hotlinks to other documents. You can easily do this if you save the short template below and paste it verbatim into your response:

To include an indented hotlink, copy and save the template below:

<p>
<blockquote>
<a href="XXX">XXX</a>
</blockquote>
<p>

When you paste this into a response, you will need to replace BOTH occurances of 'XXX' with the URL (i.e. the address) of the site you want to reference. For example, if you are are trying to point someone to Ed Yourdon's home page, the URL is 'http://www.yourdon.com/index.htm'. This means that, once complete, your inserted link will look like this in the response window:

<p>
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.yourdon.com/index.htm">http://www.yourdon.com/index.htm</a>
</blockquote>
<p>

(The addresses will NOT be red - I've simply added the color here for clarity.) DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE! Once posted, your link will appear as follows:

http://www.yourdon.com/index.h tm

If you want the displayed text to be something different than the URL (not advised for beginners) then replace the SECOND 'xxx' with the text you want displayed. Using the example above, if you wanted the displayed text to be "Eddie Yourdon's Place", the template would look like this

<p>
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.yourdon.com/index.htm">Eddie Yourdon's Place</a>
</blockquote>
<p>

(Again, the color will not be red or green - I've just added it here for clarity) Once posted, it will look like this:

Eddie Yourdon's Place

Hope this helps.

Important: One other quirk I've noticed about this forum - once you've used the paragraph tag once ('<p>'), you must continue to use it between all other paragraphs in your post or all of your paragraphs will run together.

-Arnie

-- Arnie Rimmer (arnie_rimmer@usa.net), December 07, 1998.


Could someone please point me to an extremely *easy* simple HTML tutorial? HTML for Newbie Dummies in First Grade language -- on that level. I need the whole concept easily explained from scratch. Thanks. I'd like to post fancily, but the place Jon sent me to wouldn't even open. So, maybe give a few beginner URLs? I'm a quick learner as long as it starts with basic fundamentals and goes baby step-by-step from there. :)

and someone tell me how to keep posts from losing the last sentences!

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 07, 1998.


Leska, try the link again. The ISP had a temporary outage, but they've fixed it (better get used to those for 1999 and beyond...) The document includes all posted tips plus references to other sites for more info.

-- Jon (jonmiles@pacbell.net), December 07, 1998.

I will strive


To improve my life
One step at a time
One step a day
What will be my step today?
This was just a test. This was only a test. Without the annoying beep



-- Whitney (Y2KWhit@aol.com), December 26, 1998.


test

test

test

-- Debbie Spence (dbspence@usa.net), February 03, 1999.


test of that pesky paragraph separator that works differently on different forums

Westergaard Y2k

second paragraph

"yada yada yada"

third paragraph

-- Debbie Spence (dbspence@usa.net), February 03, 1999.


test of that pesky paragraph separator that works differently on different forums

Westergaard Y2k

second paragraph

"yada yada yada"

hope that fixes it.

-- Debbie Spence (dbspence@usa.net), February 03, 1999.


(For example, try it on this sentence)

-- (will@it.work), February 18, 1999.



-- (test@testing.html), May 19, 1999.


Testing3Testing4 back to normal

-- William J. Schenker, MD (wjs@linkfast.net), February 16, 2000.

THIS IS ONLY A TEST ... THIS IS ONLY A TEST.

[Attention: Newbies, you will not understand what's going on in this thread until you've read the previous one, entitled, "An '11.5' Doomer looks at Y2K as of 2-1-2000." Go to: link. If the hotlink doesn't work......

-- William J. Schenker, MD (wjs@linkfast.net), February 23, 2000.


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