# You Can Learn HTML Quickly

You are looking at the file LEARNWEB.HTM. Compare this file's appearance displayed by a Web browser versus displayed by a text editor (Windows' Notepad works just as well... that's where we wrote this file in fact). You'll quickly see how the HyperText Markup Language works. For starters, Web pages have various forms of text available:

# Heading Style 1

## Heading Style 2

### Heading Style 3

#### Heading Style 4

##### Heading Style 5

###### Heading Style 6

Regular Body Text

Whether or not the HTML file contains any carriage return characters, Web browsers assume Body Text is a continuous stream of text to be word-wrapped as they see fit. At least, until told otherwise by such things as
line break tags,

paragraph tags, and

#### Heading Style tags.

And then there are list tags:
- One option
- Another option
- Yet another option
- The final option

Paragraph tags show up as <P> when you've got the HTML file open in an editor like Windows' Notepad. In fact, you'll notice a lot of angle-bracketed <things> in HTML code. These are markup tags.

For example, line break tags are <BR> and act like single carriage returns... that is, they place the next character following <BR> on the left margin
one line down.

Paragraph tags by contrast act like two carriage returns... that is, they place the next character following <P> on the left margin

two lines down.

And then there's the <HR> tag, the Horizontal Rule:

Some tags, like Paragraph tags <P> and line break tags <BR>, operate almost like standalone characters.

Other tags operate in pairs. Emphasized text, for example, is begun by the <EM> tag, and ended by the </EM> tag. In general, </something> indicates the end of whatever started with <something>.

### Embedding Graphics

Web graphics must be .GIF files (or Unix X-Bitmaps & X-Pixelmaps). The HTML file references them using the <IMG> tag. This tag can get rather lengthy inside. First, it needs to know the name of the file it should display:

<IMG SRC="filename.ext">

Optionally, it can provide an alternative text explanation of the image for Web users who do not have a graphical interface on their browsers:

<IMG SRC="filename.ext" ALT="[explanation]">

Graphics files are displayed by Web browsers embedded right in the text of a paragraph, handled little different from any other character. Of course, a graphic can be 10 times as tall as a capital W, or larger. Should the graphic then rise above the text line, should it be centered on it, or should it hang below the text? You decide, via the ALIGN parameter of IMG:

Embedded as if just another character: <IMG SRC="learnwe1.gif" ALIGN=bottom>

Embedded as if just another character: <IMG SRC="learnwe1.gif" ALIGN=middle>

Embedded as if just another character: <IMG SRC="learnwe1.gif" ALIGN=top>

### HyperText Links (Hotspots)

Behind the often dazzling presentations of text and graphics, the real reason to have Web pages is to link them to other Web pages and to other Internet services.

The World-Wide Web is the friendly, graphical, user interface the Internet has been desperately needing to make its vast resources accessible to people who don't want to memorize command line parameters. Web pages cover most of the arcane, strange parts of the Internet with a coherent, consistent front end. Web pages can call each other, automatically download files from FTP sites, access Gopher sites, launch sessions of Telnet, Rlogin, e-mail, news, etc.

Hypertext links are simply another type of HTML tag, the anchor.

The format is <A HREF="some URL">The Hotspot Text (or graphic)</A>

### Links to other Web pages

A hypertext link can command your Web server to download an HTML file from a Web server anywhere on the Internet. For example, Galacticomm's Home Page.

The HTML tag which does that is

<A HREF="http://www.gcomm.com"> Galacticomm's Home Page</A>

### Links to FTP sites

A hypertext link can command your Web server to run an FTP client program (most browsers either include it or can be set to launch a separate program as requested).

#### ...in Session mode

One approach is to log onto some FTP server and browse its contents interactively. For example, Log onto Galacticomm's FTP site.

The HTML tag which does that is <A HREF="ftp://gcomm.com"> Log onto Galacticomm's FTP site</A>

#### ...in Transaction mode

Another approach is to give the FTP client command line parameters which tell it to download a specific file. For example, Download UUdecode.zip.

The HTML tag which does that is <A HREF="ftp://gcomm.com/library/internet/uudecode.zip"> Download UUdecode.zip</A>

### Graphics can be links, too

A hypertext link can command your Web server to download an HTML file from a Web server anywhere on the Internet. For example, will bring you Galacticomm's Home Page.

The HTML tag which does that is <A HREF="http://www.gcomm.com"> <IMG SRC="learnwe1.gif" ALIGN=top> </A>

Obviously, there's a lot more to HTML than can be covered in one Web page. By this point, though, you can speak the language better than the average tourist. The book stores carry a number of good source books and instruction guides to HTML. These will give you the vocabulary you need to write the most useful (and while you're at it the most stunning) Web pages possible.

And we're here to give you the power to put them online.

#### Galacticomm, Inc.

www@gcomm.com
Copyright © 1995 Galacticomm, Inc. All Rights Reserved.