How to Write a Basic Web Page from Scratch

Web pages look terribly complicated, and they absolutely can be. Still, there are a few basic components that can get you started. Web pages are written in a code called HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It's a way of telling the browser how to display the information on your page, by using what are called "tags." We'll start with some very basic tags.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A computer
• A web browser
• A Notepad-type program
• A computer
• A web browser
• A Notepad-type program
• Your previously created .html document

Create the Head of a Web Page

1. Almost all tags come in pairs, including the tags we'll use here. All tags are surrounded with "<>." The first pair of tags you'll use is:
   
   
   
   Open a new Notepad document. Type those tags into the Notepad document.
2. A basic web page has two parts, the head and the body. You create those with the following tags:
   
   
   
   Type those tags in between your and tags.
3. By now you've noticed that tags have a beginning and end, and they start and end in order. Your next pair of tags goes in the head of your page. Type these tags between and :
   
   
4. Type the name of the page in between the tags. For now, use your name. It will look like this:
   
   
5. Choose a place to save your document, then select "Save As" on the "File" menu. Save your document as "html practice.html"

Create the Body of Your Page

6. Now for the body of the page. You need to tell the browser what size to make the text. The basic size tags are
   ,
   ,
   ,
   ,
   ,
   . The smaller the number, the larger the text.
7. Another basic tag is
   . It doesn't have a second half. It tells the browser to create a line break. This is useful to align text.
8. We'll use this these tags to create the first page. Type the following in between the and tags:
   
   

   Your name here

   
   
   

   This is H1 text.

   
   
   

   This is H2 text.

   
   
   

   This is H3 text.

   
   
   

   This is H4 text.

   
   
   

   This is H5 text.

   
   
   

   This is H6 text.

   
   
9. You can modify text in other ways. Using will make text bold. Using will make text italic.
10. Save your document. Now, open a browser window. Use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, or another web browser. Go to the File menu list, and choose "Open File." Browse until you get to the new document, and then select it and click "open." You should see the web page on the screen!

Tips & Warnings

• Notice that the tags start in order, then close in reverse order.
• Text is automatically left-aligned. You can change that by adding an "attribute" to your size tags as follows:
  . You can also insert a "center" tag right after the body tag, and this tag right before the tag, .
• There are many fine programs that will automate this process for you, but it will be easier to make them do what you want if you understand a bit about it before you start.