Creating the Pages

Understanding Tags

Before you start trying out any of the material in the following sections, there are five key things about html tags that you need to know:

1. Allpage formatting is achieved by using tags. Browsers will ignore any formatting that is not indicated by tags, in particular: tabs, line breaks,multiple spaces. Tabs and multiple spaces are not available in HTML. Line breaks are created by special line break tags.
2. All html tags consist of angled brackets containing the tag identifier, e.g. <HR>, the tag which indicates a horizontal rule.
3. Some tags are single, others come in pairs. Paired tags (consisting of a start tag and an end tag) enclose the material to which they apply, e.g. <B> is the start tag for a section of bold text, </B> is the end tag, and everything between them will be in bold. End tags always have / before the tag identifier.
4. You cannot invent your own tags; you can only use those which are already defined.
5. Tags are not case sensitive: <HR> and <hr>, or even <hR>, will all produce a horizontal rule. (However, tags are often typed in upper case, as this makes it easy for a human reader to spot the tags when reading the HTML source for a page.)

If you try out the material in this chapter and it doesn't seem to come out right, experience suggests that in almost every case it will be because you have made a typing error, and not because there's something wrong with your browser. Check the tags carefully, especially the spelling - browsers cannot cope with mis-spelt or missing tags. Check that you have matching start and end tags where required.

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