HTML Knowledge Base
The following list of basic HTML commands will assist you in formatting your content in the admin area.
The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is one of the simplest of methods for annotating text to display on a world wide web browser window. Generally a "tag" is placed at the beginning of text to be displayed in a certain way or position on the screen and a "closing tag" is placed at the end of the affected text. It is that simple. Only a few commands do not require a "closing tag", they are designated below.
A tag can sometimes provide more flexibility by allowing it to be modified. Such a modifier is an "attribute". The attribute usually takes an argument that says exactly how the attribute is to be modified. For example if you mark some text to be displayed in red on the browser window, you would surround the text with the <font> and </font> tags. You would add a "color=" attribute to tell the browser that you want to change the color and then add the argument "red" to say that you want to the color to be red. It would look like this: "<font color=red>red text</font>." Quotation marks are not required in the HTML tags unless there are spaces between words in an attribute (i.e. <font face="comic sans ms" size=5 color=red>).
To create a paragraph break use the "break" command. To double space simply use the break command twice. This command does not require a closing tag.
Line Break: <br>
To create a non-breaking space use the "space" command. This will allow for additional spaces between words, etc. In standard HTML only one space is displayed even if you type multiple spaces and so the "space" command can be used to insert additional spaces.
Space:
Use the "bold" command to make text bold.
Bold: <b>bold text</b>
Use the "italic" command to make text italic.
Italic: <em>italic text</em>
Use the "anchor" tag to make a hyperlink.
The command (target="_blank") is used to open a new window for the URL so the customer does not leave your site when visiting a different website. To not open a new window remove this command.
Link to Website:
<a href="http://www.astrachan.com" target="_blank">www.astrachan.com</a>
Link to Email Address:
<a href="mailto:support@astrachan.com">support@astrachan.com</a>
The font command has several attributes such as "color", "size", and "face". Font colors are generally hex numbers like "ffffff" for "white", but most common colors also use their names such as "white, red, blue, green, gray, black, etc". Font sizes range from "1" to "7" with "1" being the smallest. The "face" attribute determines the font type or style, caution is advised when using the "face" attribute as the client computer must have the font on their machine to see the font properly. It is best to not change the font face or to use a very generic font such as "arial". Your site has already been formated with the appropriate face and so should not require adjustment. An example of each is contained below:
Font Color: <font color=red>red text</font>
Font Size: <font size=5>big text</font>
Notice that only one closing tag is required when the attributes are combined in the tag.
Use the "list" command to create bulleted lists, notice that a "close" tag is not required.
Standard List:
The following code:
<li>listed text one
<li>listed text two
Would produce:
listed text one
listed text two
Indented Non-Ordered List:
The following code:
<ul>
<li>listed text one
<li>listed text two
</ul>
Would produce:
- listed text one
- listed text two
Indented Ordered List:
The following code:
<ol>
<li>listed text one
<li>listed text two
</ol>
Would produce:
- listed text one
- listed text two
Recommended Reading:
Websites:
1. HTML Center
2. HTML Compenium
Books:
1. Sams Teach Yourself HTML and XHTML in 24 Hours (ISBN: 0672320762)
2. HTML: A Beginner's Guide (ISBN: 0072130261)
3. HTML Pocket Reference - Nutshell Handbook (ISBN: 1565925793)
4. The Web Page Design Cookbook: All the Ingredients You Need to Create 5-Star Web Pages (ISBN: 0471130397)
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