HTML and DreamWeaver

AN INTRODUCTION TO HTML (HYPER TEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE).

A workshop by Nick Gessler.

PHILOSOPHY:

You DO NOT need to know HTML to create a webpage. FrontPage and DreamWeaver both have WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors that will write most of the HTML code for you. They work remarkably like Microsoft Word, so imagine that you're using just another word processor. However unlike Word, you really should learn HOW the source code relates to the rendered page. My approach is quite simple: Look at several simple webpages and compare them with the code behind them. Do some detective work on your own to see how the HTML tags relate to the finished image. Don't memorize the tags (you can always peek behind a page to see the proper syntax). But do learn how they can be put together to create a page. With a little knowledge of HTML you can cut the code from other webpages and paste them into yours. This basic knowledge will help you dive into your own source code to fix the problems that WYSIWYG editors periodically create. Pretend you're working at Bletchley Park decrypting secret Nazi messages encoded on the Enigma device. Play, experiment, and enjoy. In no time at all you'll feel like tackling DHTML (Dynamic HTML), JavaScript, and XML!

KEY HISTORICAL RESOURCES:

In 1945 Vannevar Bush wrote "As We May Think" envisioning the global linking of information in the July issue of the Atlantic Monthly.
In 1965 Ted Nelson coined the term "hypertext" to mean "non-sequential writing" as part of his project "Xanadu".
In 1969 ARPANET was born linking UCLA with three other sites. It evolved into what we call the Internet and the World Wide Web.

TUTORIALS:

Links to tutorials I created some time ago. They still contain some useful information:

DECODING HTML:

How does HTML determine the "look" of the rendered page? Open TWO browser windows and display TWO copies of this webpage. Open TWO copies of the first link below. In ONE window pull down "View | Source." Compare the raw HTML code, point for point, with the image it renders in the other browser window. Do this first for "Text," then for "Picture" and finally for "Link." Check the source code for a variety of webpages that interest you.

TECHNICAL DETAILS: