If you're reading this Web page you probably know that it's HTML that enables you to browse through information, look at images and click on links.
But while most of us know what HTML is, not many know how to use it. 'Isn't it better to just leave that to the Web designers?' you may ask.
Well, let me ask you this: While sending an e-greeting or posting an opinion on a forum, have you ever wished you could highlight a part of your message, format it the way you want to and include hyperlinks?
Learning a few basic HTML tags can help you do that!
While you don't really need to know HTML to post or send any textual communication online, it's a useful tool to help you format and present text the way you want to on forums, Web logs, journals, Web pages, e-greetings and email.
What's a tag?
HTML tags are used to 'mark up' text to change its appearance so that it can be displayed in a browser in a particular format. These are how tags look like: <B>, <html>, <BODY>, <font>.
As you may have noticed, HTML tags are created by typing specific characters between triangular brackets. Some tags have two parts: the 'start tag' and the 'end tag'. For instance, if you want a particular word to appear bold, all you have to do is insert a start tag for bold before the word and then insert an end tag for bold immediately after the word. This will ensure that only the word between the bold tags is affected without disturbing the rest of the copy.
10 helpful HTML tags
1. <B>
<B>bold</B> makes text between the tags bold.
2. <U>
<U>underlines</U>underlines text
3. <I>
<I>italicises</I> italicises text.
4. <BR>
You insert the line break tag exactly at the point when you want to break a line. The next sentence continues on the following line but doesn't create a new paragraph. There's no end tag for this; it's just <BR>.
Avina Lobo<BR>
Rediff.com<BR>
Will display…
Avina Lobo
Rediff.com
5. <P>
<P> begins a new paragraph. Insert the start tag <P> at the beginning of a block of text and the end tag </P> at the end.
6. <CENTER>
When text is posted on the Web, it appears by default on the left side of the page. You can use the <center> tag to help you position text in the center. Use just as you would use a paragraph tag.
7. <HR>
Use an <HR> tag between paragraphs to insert a 'horizontal rule' or a line across a page. No end tag is needed.
8. Heading Tags
These tags create headlines of different sizes. They look like <HI>, <H2> right up to <H6> with <H1> displaying the largest headline and <H6>, the smallest. This is how you use the heading tag:
<H4> Heading 4</H4>
<H5> Heading 5</H5>
<H6> Heading 6</H6>
9. Font size
The <small>, <big> and <strong> tags can be used according to the size of the font you need, like this:
A <big>tall</big> building.
10. Links
You can add a link to another Web page using this tag. Copy the following code and paste the URL of the page you want to link to. For instance, to link to rediff.com you'd use the tag like this.
<A href="http://www.rediff.com">Rediff</A>
HTML tags can be used both in uppercase or lowercase. So whether you type in <br> or <BR>, the outcome is the same.
Note: When two or more tags are used together, they need to be 'nested' or used within each other. For example if you want to make a word bold and italicised you would use the <B> and <I> tags together like this: <B> <I>Bold</I></B> and not like this: <B><I>Bold</B></I>.
While you can type out the tags yourself, there are various short cuts. The easiest option is to copy and paste the tags from the HTML cheat sheet or about.com's basic HTML Tag Library.
Webenalysis.com has tag libraries as well as a list and table tag generators. All you do is copy and paste! Another option is the HTML code generator.
Of course, these are just random tags to help you publish text online. If you want to create Web pages you'd need tutorials on the basics of coding and uploading HTML pages. Good tutorials can be found at Webmonkey, HTML Goodies and the HTML Clinic.
Copy-Paste Coding
Coding isn't rocket science. As long as you're not doing any of it. Copy and paste is the most useful tool to help you add effects to your Web pages. There are plenty of ready scripts and code generators that you can use for free. All you need to do is specify whether you want a dropdown menu or a popup window and follow instructions to paste the code into your HTML pages!
Here are some neat online code generators:
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