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Welcome to OIH HTML HELP/RESOURCE PAGE
Useful HTML Tips
When you write HTML text, you can never be sure how the text is displayed in another browser. Some people have large computer displays, some have small. The text will be reformatted every time the user resizes his window. Never try to format the text in your editor by adding empty lines and spaces to the text.
HTML will truncate the spaces in your text. Any number of spaces count as one. Some extra information: In HTML a new line counts as one space.
Using empty paragraphs <p> to insert blank lines is a bad habit. Use the <br> tag instead. (But don't use the <br> tag to create lists. Wait until you have learned about HTML lists.)
You might have noticed that paragraphs can be written without the closing tag </p>. Don't rely on it. The next version of HTML will not allow you to skip ANY closing tags.
HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after some elements, like before and after a paragraph, and before and after a heading.
We use a horizontal rule (the <hr> tag), to separate the sections in our tutorials.
Simple copy and Paste the Code Snippets of HTML Code into your document or auction.
click any of the tabs to continue.
Headings
Headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags. <h1> defines the largest heading. <h6> defines the smallest heading.
HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a heading.
Paragraphs
Paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.
HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a paragraph.
Line Breaks
The <br> tag is used when you want to end a line, but don't want to start a new paragraph. The <br> tag forces a line break wherever you place it.
The <br> tag is an empty tag. It has no closing tag.
Backgrounds
The <body> tag has two attributes where you can specify backgrounds. The background can be a color or an image.
Bgcolor
The bgcolor attribute specifies a background-color for an HTML page. The value of this attribute can be a hexadecimal number, an RGB value, or a color name:
The lines above all set the background-color to black.
Background
The background attribute specifies a background-image for an HTML page. The value of this attribute is the URL of the image you want to use. If the image is smaller than the browser window, the image will repeat itself until it fills the entire browser window.
The URL can be relative (as in the first line above) or absolute (as in the second line above).
Note: If you want to use a background image, you should keep in mind:
- Will the background image increase the loading time too much?
- Will the background image look good with other images on the page?
- Will the background image look good with the text colors on the page?
- Will the background image look good when it is repeated on the page?
- Will the background image take away the focus from the text?
Comments in HTML
The comment tag is used to insert a comment in the HTML source code. A comment will be ignored by the browser. You can use comments to explain your code, which can help you when you edit the source code at a later date.
Note that you need an exclamation point after the opening bracket, but not before the closing bracket.
The Anchor Tag and the Href Attribute
HTML uses the <a> (anchor) tag to create a link to another document.
An anchor can point to any resource on the Web: an HTML page, an image, a sound file, a movie, etc.
The syntax of creating an anchor:
The <a> tag is used to create an anchor to link from, the href attribute is used to address the document to link to, and the words between the open and close of the anchor tag will be displayed as a hyperlink.
This anchor defines a link to OfferItHere!:
The line above will look like this in a browser:
The Anchor Tag and the Name Attribute
The name attribute is used to create a named anchor. When using named anchors we can create links that can jump directly into a specific section on a page, instead of letting the user scroll around to find what he/she is looking for.
Below is the syntax of a named anchor:
The name attribute is used to create a named anchor. The name of the anchor can be any text you care to use.
The line below defines a named anchor:
You should notice that a named anchor is not displayed in a special way.
To link directly to the "tips" section, add a # sign and the name of the anchor to the end of a URL, like this:
A hyperlink to the Useful Tips Section from WITHIN the file "html_links.asp" will look like this:
The Target Attribute
With the target attribute, you can define where the linked document will be opened.
The line below will open the document in a new browser window:
Tables
Tables are defined with the <table> tag. A table is divided into rows (with the <tr> tag), and each row is divided into data cells (with the <td> tag). The letters td stands for "table data," which is the content of a data cell. A data cell can contain text, images, lists, paragraphs, forms, horizontal rules, tables, etc.
How it looks in a browser:
| row 1, cell 1 | row 1, cell 2 |
| row 2, cell 1 | row 2, cell 2 |
Tables and the Border Attribute
If you do not specify a border attribute the table will be displayed without any borders. Sometimes this can be useful, but most of the time, you want the borders to show.
To display a table with borders, you will have to use the border attribute:
Empty Cells in a Table
Table cells with no content are not displayed very well in most browsers.
How it looks in a browser:
| row 1, cell 1 | row 1, cell 2 |
| row 2, cell 1 |
Note that the borders around the empty table cell are missing (NB! Mozilla Firefox displays the border).
To avoid this, add a non-breaking space ( ) to empty data cells, to make the borders visible:
How it looks in a browser:
| row 1, cell 1 | row 1, cell 2 |
| row 2, cell 1 |
Unordered Lists
An unordered list is a list of items. The list items are marked with bullets (typically small black circles).
An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.
Here is how it looks in a browser:
- Coffee
- Milk
Inside a list item you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.
Ordered Lists
An ordered list is also a list of items. The list items are marked with numbers.
An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.
Here is how it looks in a browser:
- Coffee
- Milk
Inside a list item you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.
Definition Lists
A definition list is not a list of items. This is a list of terms and explanation of the terms.
A definition list starts with the <dl> tag. Each definition-list term starts with the <dt> tag. Each definition-list definition starts with the <dd> tag.
Here is how it looks in a browser:
- Coffee
- Black hot drink
- Milk
- White cold drink
Inside a definition-list definition (the <dd> tag) you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.
The Image Tag and the Src Attribute
In HTML, images are defined with the <img> tag.
The <img> tag is empty, which means that it contains attributes only and it has no closing tag.
To display an image on a page, you need to use the src attribute. Src stands for "source". The value of the src attribute is the URL of the image you want to display on your page.
The syntax of defining an image:
The URL points to the location where the image is stored. An image named "oihl.gif" located in the directory "images" on "www.OfferItHere.com" has the URL: http://www.OfferItHere.com/images/oihl.gif.
The browser puts the image where the image tag occurs in the document. If you put an image tag between two paragraphs, the browser shows the first paragraph, then the image, and then the second paragraph.
The Alt Attribute
The alt attribute is used to define an "alternate text" for an image. The value of the alt attribute is an author-defined text:
The "alt" attribute tells the reader what he or she is missing on a page if the browser can't load images. The browser will then display the alternate text instead of the image. It is a good practice to include the "alt" attribute for each image on a page, to improve the display and usefulness of your document for people who have text-only browser.
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