HTML Notes
HTML Notes
HTML elements label pieces of content such as "this is a heading", "this is a paragraph", "this is a
link", etc.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Example Explained
The <!DOCTYPE html> declaration defines that this document is an HTML5 document
The <head> element contains meta information about the HTML page
The <title> element specifies a title for the HTML page (which is shown in the browser's title bar
or in the page's tab)
The <body> element defines the document's body, and is a container for all the visible contents,
such as headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, lists, etc.
An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag:
The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Save the file on your computer. Select File > Save as in the Notepad menu.
Name the file "index.htm" and set the encoding to UTF-8 (which is the preferred encoding for HTML
files).
Tip: You can use either .htm or .html as file extension. There is no difference; it is up to you.
Open the saved HTML file in your favorite browser (double click on the file, or right-click - and choose
"Open with").
HTML Documents
All HTML documents must start with a document type declaration: <!DOCTYPE html>.
The HTML document itself begins with <html> and ends with </html>.
The visible part of the HTML document is between <body> and </body>.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
</body>
</html>
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration represents the document type, and helps browsers to display web pages
correctly.
It must only appear once, at the top of the page (before any HTML tags).
<!DOCTYPE html>
HTML Headings
<h1> defines the most important heading. <h6> defines the least important heading:
Example
HTML Paragraphs
Example
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>
HTML Links
Example
HTML Images
The source file (src), alternative text (alt), width, and height are provided as attributes:
Example
Have you ever seen a Web page and wondered "Hey! How did they do that?"
Click CTRL + U in an HTML page, or right-click on the page and select "View Page Source". This will open
a new tab containing the HTML source code of the page.
Right-click on an element (or a blank area), and choose "Inspect" to see what elements are made up of
(you will see both the HTML and the CSS). You can also edit the HTML or CSS on-the-fly in the Elements
or Styles panel that opens.
HTML Elements
An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag.
HTML Elements
The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
HTML elements can be nested (this means that elements can contain other elements).
The following example contains four HTML elements (<html>, <body>, <h1> and <p>):
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Example Explained
The <html> element is the root element and it defines the whole HTML document.
</body>
Then, inside the <body> element there are two other elements: <h1> and <p>:
Some HTML elements will display correctly, even if you forget the end tag:
Example
<html>
<body>
<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is a paragraph
</body>
</html>
However, never rely on this! Unexpected results and errors may occur if you forget the end tag!
The <br> tag defines a line break, and is an empty element without a closing tag:
Example
HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>.
The HTML standard does not require lowercase tags, but W3C recommends lowercase in HTML,
and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.
HTML Attributes
The <a> tag defines a hyperlink. The href attribute specifies the URL of the page the link goes to:
Example
The <img> tag is used to embed an image in an HTML page. The src attribute specifies the path to the
image to be displayed:
Example
<img src="img_girl.jpg">
There are two ways to specify the URL in the src attribute:
Notes: External images might be under copyright. If you do not get permission to use it, you may be in
violation of copyright laws. In addition, you cannot control external images; it can suddenly be removed
or changed.
2. Relative URL - Links to an image that is hosted within the website. Here, the URL does not include the
domain name. If the URL begins without a slash, it will be relative to the current page. Example:
src="img_girl.jpg". If the URL begins with a slash, it will be relative to the domain. Example:
src="/images/img_girl.jpg".
Tip: It is almost always best to use relative URLs. They will not break if you change domain.
The <img> tag should also contain the width and height attributes, which specify the width and height of
the image (in pixels):
Example
The required alt attribute for the <img> tag specifies an alternate text for an image, if the image for
some reason cannot be displayed. This can be due to a slow connection, or an error in the src attribute,
or if the user uses a screen reader.
Example
The style attribute is used to add styles to an element, such as color, font, size, and more.
Example
You will learn more about styles in our HTML Styles chapter.
You should always include the lang attribute inside the <html> tag, to declare the language of the Web
page. This is meant to assist search engines and browsers.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<body>
...
</body>
</html>
Country codes can also be added to the language code in the lang attribute. So, the first two characters
define the language of the HTML page, and the last two characters define the country.
The following example specifies English as the language and United States as the country:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
<body>
...
</body>
</html>
You can see all the language codes in our HTML Language Code Reference.
The value of the title attribute will be displayed as a tooltip when you mouse over the element:
Example
The title attribute (and all other attributes) can be written with uppercase or lowercase
like title or TITLE.
However, W3C recommends lowercase attributes in HTML, and demands lowercase attributes for
stricter document types like XHTML.
The HTML standard does not require quotes around attribute values.
However, W3C recommends quotes in HTML, and demands quotes for stricter document types like
XHTML.
Good:
Bad:
Sometimes you have to use quotes. This example will not display the title attribute correctly, because it
contains a space:
Example
In some situations, when the attribute value itself contains double quotes, it is necessary to use single
quotes:
Or vice versa:
Chapter Summary
The href attribute of <a> specifies the URL of the page the link goes to
The src attribute of <img> specifies the path to the image to be displayed
The width and height attributes of <img> provide size information for images
The style attribute is used to add styles to an element, such as color, font, size, and more
The lang attribute of the <html> tag declares the language of the Web page
HTML headings are titles or subtitles that you want to display on a webpage.
HTML Headings
<h1> defines the most important heading. <h6> defines the least important heading.
Example
<h1>Heading 1</h1>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h5>Heading 5</h5>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>
Note: Browsers automatically add some white space (a margin) before and after a heading.
Search engines use the headings to index the structure and content of your web pages.
Users often skim a page by its headings. It is important to use headings to show the document structure.
<h1> headings should be used for main headings, followed by <h2> headings, then the less
important <h3>, and so on.
Note: Use HTML headings for headings only. Don't use headings to make text BIG or bold.
Bigger Headings
Each HTML heading has a default size. However, you can specify the size for any heading with
the style attribute, using the CSS font-size property:
Example
HTML Paragraphs
HTML Paragraphs
A paragraph always starts on a new line, and browsers automatically add some white space (a margin)
before and after a paragraph.
Example
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>
HTML Display
You cannot be sure how HTML will be displayed.
Large or small screens, and resized windows will create different results.
With HTML, you cannot change the display by adding extra spaces or extra lines in your HTML code.
The browser will automatically remove any extra spaces and lines when the page is displayed:
Example
<p>
This paragraph
contains a lot of lines
in the source code,
but the browser
ignores it.
</p>
<p>
This paragraph
contains a lot of spaces
in the source code,
but the browser
ignores it.
</p>
The <hr> tag defines a thematic break in an HTML page, and is most often displayed as a horizontal rule.
The <hr> element is used to separate content (or define a change) in an HTML page:
Example
The <hr> tag is an empty tag, which means that it has no end tag.
HTML Line Breaks
Use <br> if you want a line break (a new line) without starting a new paragraph:
Example
The <br> tag is an empty tag, which means that it has no end tag.
Example
<p>
My Bonnie lies over the ocean.
The text inside a <pre> element is displayed in a fixed-width font (usually Courier), and it preserves both
spaces and line breaks:
Example
<pre>
My Bonnie lies over the ocean.
Example
I am Red
I am Blue
I am Big
Setting the style of an HTML element, can be done with the style attribute.
<tagname style="property:value;">
Background Color
The CSS background-color property defines the background color for an HTML element.
Example
<body style="background-color:powderblue;">
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
Example
<body>
<h1 style="background-color:powderblue;">This is a heading</h1>
<p style="background-color:tomato;">This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
Text Color
The CSS color property defines the text color for an HTML element:
Example
Fonts
The CSS font-family property defines the font to be used for an HTML element:
Example
Text Size
The CSS font-size property defines the text size for an HTML element:
Example
Text Alignment
The CSS text-align property defines the horizontal text alignment for an HTML element:
Example
Chapter Summary
CSS saves a lot of work. It can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once.
Manipulate Text
Colors, Boxes
What is CSS?
With CSS, you can control the color, font, the size of text, the spacing between elements, how elements
are positioned and laid out, what background images or background colors are to be used, different
displays for different devices and screen sizes, and much more!
Tip: The word cascading means that a style applied to a parent element will also apply to all children
elements within the parent. So, if you set the color of the body text to "blue", all headings, paragraphs,
and other text elements within the body will also get the same color (unless you specify something
else)!
Using CSS
The most common way to add CSS, is to keep the styles in external CSS files. However, in this tutorial we
will use inline and internal styles, because this is easier to demonstrate, and easier for you to try it
yourself.
Inline CSS
The following example sets the text color of the <h1> element to blue, and the text color of
the <p> element to red:
Example
Internal CSS
An internal CSS is defined in the <head> section of an HTML page, within a <style> element.
The following example sets the text color of ALL the <h1> elements (on that page) to blue, and the text
color of ALL the <p> elements to red. In addition, the page will be displayed with a "powderblue"
background color:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
body {background-color: powderblue;}
h1 {color: blue;}
p {color: red;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
External CSS
An external style sheet is used to define the style for many HTML pages.
To use an external style sheet, add a link to it in the <head> section of each HTML page:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
The external style sheet can be written in any text editor. The file must not contain any HTML code, and
must be saved with a .css extension.
"styles.css":
body {
background-color: powderblue;
}
h1 {
color: blue;
}
p{
color: red;
}
Tip: With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire web site, by changing one file!
CSS Colors, Fonts and Sizes
Here, we will demonstrate some commonly used CSS properties. You will learn more about them later.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
h1 {
color: blue;
font-family: verdana;
font-size: 300%;
}
p{
color: red;
font-family: courier;
font-size: 160%;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
CSS Border
Example
p{
border: 2px solid powderblue;
}
CSS Padding
The CSS padding property defines a padding (space) between the text and the border.
Example
p{
border: 2px solid powderblue;
padding: 30px;
}
CSS Margin
The CSS margin property defines a margin (space) outside the border.
Example
p{
border: 2px solid powderblue;
margin: 50px;
}
External style sheets can be referenced with a full URL or with a path relative to the current web page.
Example
Example
This example links to a style sheet located in the html folder on the current web site:
Example
This example links to a style sheet located in the same folder as the current page:
You can read more about file paths in the chapter HTML File Paths.
Chapter Summary
Use the HTML <head> element to store <style> and <link> elements
Use the CSS padding property for space inside the border
Use the CSS margin property for space outside the border