Shoutbux | submit your thoughts » Tutorial – HTML http://www.shoutbux.com Post your thoughts about IT, business, love and relationships, food, dining and a lot more! Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:04:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 About the Robots META tag http://www.shoutbux.com/about-the-robots-meta-tag/ http://www.shoutbux.com/about-the-robots-meta-tag/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:22:47 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=897 In a nutshell

You can use a special HTML <META> tag to tell robots not to index the content of a page, and/or not scan it for links to follow.

For example:

<html>
<head>
<title>...</title>
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
</head>

There are two important considerations when using the robots tag:

* robots can ignore your tag. Especially malware robots that scan the web for security vulnerabilities, and email address harvesters used by spammers will pay no attention.
* the NOFOLLOW directive only applies to links on this page. It’s entirely likely that a robot might find the same links on some other page without a NOFOLLOW (perhaps on some other site), and so still arrives at your undesired page.

Don’t confuse this NOFOLLOW with the rel=”nofollow” link attribute.
The details

Like the /robots.txt, the robots META tag is a de-facto standard. It originated from a “birds of a feather” meeting at a 1996 distributed indexing workshop, and was described in meeting notes.

The META tag is also described in the HTML 4.01 specification, Appendix B.4.1.

The rest of this page gives an overview of how to use the robots tags in your pages, with some simple recipes. To learn more see also the FAQ.
How to write a Robots Meta Tag
Where to put it

Like any tag it should be placed in the HEAD section of an HTML page, as in the example above. You should put it in every page on your site, because a robot can encounter a deep link to any page on your site.
What to put into it

The “NAME” attribute must be “ROBOTS”.

Valid values for the “CONTENT” attribute are: “INDEX”, “NOINDEX”, “FOLLOW”, “NOFOLLOW”. Multiple comma-separated values are allowed, but obviously only some combinations make sense. If there is no robots tag, the default is “INDEX,FOLLOW”, so there’s no need to spell that out. That leaves: 

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, FOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, NOFOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/about-the-robots-meta-tag/feed/ 1 HTML Images http://www.shoutbux.com/html-images/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-images/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:55:06 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=857 tag. The < img > tag is empty, which means that it contains attributes only and it has no closing tag. To display an image on a page, you need to use the src attribute. Src stands for [...]]]> The Image Tag and the Src Attribute

In HTML, images are defined with the < img > tag.

The < img > tag is empty, which means that it contains attributes only and it has no closing tag.

To display an image on a page, you need to use the src attribute. Src stands for “source”. The value of the src attribute is the URL of the image you want to display on your page.

The syntax of defining an image:

<img src="url" />

The URL points to the location where the image is stored. An image named “boat.gif” located in the directory “images” on “www.w3schools.com” has the URL: http://www.w3schools.com/images/boat.gif.

The browser puts the image where the image tag occurs in the document. If you put an image tag between two paragraphs, the browser shows the first paragraph, then the image, and then the second paragraph.
The Alt Attribute

The alt attribute is used to define an “alternate text” for an image. The value of the alt attribute is an author-defined text: 

<img src="boat.gif" alt="Big Boat" />

The “alt” attribute tells the reader what he or she is missing on a page if the browser can’t load images. The browser will then display the alternate text instead of the image. It is a good practice to include the “alt” attribute for each image on a page, to improve the display and usefulness of your document for people who have text-only browsers.


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-images/feed/ 0 HTML Links http://www.shoutbux.com/html-links/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-links/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:52:05 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=854 Hyperlinks, Anchors, and Links

In web terms, a hyperlink is a reference (an address) to a resource on the web.

Hyperlinks can point to any resource on the web: an HTML page, an image, a sound file, a movie, etc.

An anchor is a term used to define a hyperlink destination inside a document.

The HTML anchor element <a>, is used to define both hyperlinks and anchors.

We will use the term HTML link when the <a> element points to a resource, and the term HTML anchor when the <a> elements defines an address inside a document..
An HTML Link

Link syntax:

<a href=”url”>Link text</a>

The start tag contains attributes about the link.

The element content (Link text) defines the part to be displayed.

Note: The element content doesn’t have to be text. You can link from an image or any other HTML element.
The href Attribute

The href attribute defines the link “address”.

This <a> element defines a link to Shoutbux:

<a href=”http://www.shoutbux.com/”>Shoutbux!</a>

The target Attribute

The target attribute defines where the linked document will be opened.

The code below will open the document in a new browser window:

<a href=”http://www.shoutbux.com/”
target=”_blank”>Shoutbux</a>

The name Attribute

When the name attribute is used, the <a> element defines a named anchor inside a HTML document.

Named anchor are not displayed in any special way. They are invisible to the reader.

Named anchor syntax:

<a name=”label”>Any content</a>

The link syntax to a named anchor:

<a href=”#label”>Any content</a>

The # in the href attribute defines a link to a named anchor.

Example:

A named anchor inside an HTML document:

<a name=”tips”>Useful Tips Section</a>

A link to the Useful Tips Section from the same document:

<a href=”#tips”>
Jump to the Useful Tips Section</a>

A link to the Useful Tips Section from another document:

<a href=”http://www.shoutbux.com/html_tutorial.htm#tips”>
Jump to the Useful Tips Section</a>


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-links/feed/ 0 HTML Text Formatting http://www.shoutbux.com/html-text-formatting/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-text-formatting/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:40:39 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=847 HTML Formatting Tags

HTML uses tags like <b> and <i> for formatting output, like bold or italic text.

These HTML tags are called formatting tags.

Refer to the bottom of this page for a complete reference.

Text Formatting Tags

Tag Description
<b> Defines bold text
<big> Defines big text
<em> Defines emphasized text
<i> Defines italic text
<small> Defines small text
<strong> Defines strong text
<sub> Defines subscripted text
<sup> Defines superscripted text
<ins> Defines inserted text
<del> Defines deleted text
<s> Deprecated. Use <del> instead
<strike> Deprecated. Use <del> instead
<u> Deprecated. Use styles instead

“Computer Output” Tags

Tag Description
<code> Defines computer code text
<kbd> Defines keyboard text
<samp> Defines sample computer code
<tt> Defines teletype text
<var> Defines a variable
<pre> Defines preformatted text
<listing> Deprecated. Use <pre> instead
<plaintext> Deprecated. Use <pre> instead
<xmp> Deprecated. Use <pre> instead

Citations, Quotations, and Definition Tags

Tag Description
<abbr> Defines an abbreviation
<acronym> Defines an acronym
<address> Defines an address element
<bdo> Defines the text direction
<blockquote> Defines a long quotation
<q> Defines a short quotation
<cite> Defines a citation
<dfn> Defines a definition term


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-text-formatting/feed/ 0 HTML Paragraphs http://www.shoutbux.com/html-paragraphs/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-paragraphs/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:52:39 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=841 HTML Paragraphs

Paragraphs are defined with the < p > tag.

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>

Note: Browsers automatically adds an empty line before and after paragraphs.

Don’t Forget the End Tag

Most browsers will display HTML correctly even if you forget the end tag:

<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is another paragraph

The example above will work in most browsers, but don’t rely on it. Forgetting the end tag can produce unexpected results or errors.

Note: Future version of HTML will not allow you to skip end tags.

HTML Line Breaks

Use the < br /> tag if you want a line break (a new line) without starting a new paragraph:

<p>This is<br />a para<br />graph with line breaks</p>

The < br /> element is an empty HTML element. It has no end tag.
< br > or < br />

In XHTML, XML, and future versions of HTML, HTML elements with no end tag (closing tag) are not allowed.

Even if < br > works in all browsers, writing < br /> instead is more future proof.


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-paragraphs/feed/ 0 HTML Headings http://www.shoutbux.com/html-headings/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-headings/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:47:13 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=839 HTML Headings

Headings are defined with the < h1 > to < h6 > tags.

< h1 > defines the largest heading. < h6 > defines the smallest heading.

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>

Note: Browsers automatically add an empty line before and after headings.
Headings Are Important

Use HTML headings for headings only. Don’t use headings to make text BIG or bold.

Search engines use your headings to index the structure and content of your web pages.

Since users may skim your pages by its headings, it is important to use headings to show the document structure.

H1 headings should be used as main headings, followed by H2 headings, then less important H3 headings, and so on.
HTML Rules (Lines)

The < hr /> tag is used to create an horizontal rule (line).

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<hr />
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<hr />
<p>This is a paragraph</p>

HTML Comments

Comments can be inserted in the HTML code to make it more readable and understandable. Comments are ignored by the browser and are not displayed.

Comments are written like this:

<! -- This is a comment -->

Note: There is an exclamation point after the opening bracket, but not before the closing bracket.
HTML Tip – How to View HTML Source

Have you ever seen a Web page and wondered “Hey! How did they do that?”

To find out, right-click in the page and select “View Source” (IE) or “View Page Source” (Firefox) or similar for other browsers. This will open a window that shows you the HTML code of the page.


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-headings/feed/ 0 HTML Attributes http://www.shoutbux.com/html-attributes/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-attributes/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:44:20 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=837 HTML Attributes

* HTML elements can have attributes
* Attributes provide additional information about the element
* Attributes are always specified in the start tag
* Attributes come in name/value pairs like: name=”value”

Attribute Example

HTML links are defined with the < a > tag. The link address is provided as an attribute:

< a href="http://www.w3schools.com">This is a link< /a>

Always Quote Attribute Values

Attribute values should always be enclosed in quotes.

Double style quotes are the most common, but single style quotes are also allowed.

In some rare situations, like when the attribute value itself contains quotes, it is necessary to use single quotes:

name=’John “ShotGun” Nelson’
HTML Tip: Use Lowercase Attributes

Attribute names and attribute values are case-insensitive.

However, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase attributes/attribute values in their HTML 4 recommendation

Newer versions of (X)HTML will demand lowercase attributes.


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-attributes/feed/ 0 HTML Elements http://www.shoutbux.com/html-elements/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-elements/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:07:55 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=831 HTML Elements

An HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:

HTML Element Syntax

* An HTML element starts with a start tag / opening tag
* An HTML element ends with an end tag / closing tag
* The element content is everything between the start and the end tag
* Some HTML elements have empty content
* Empty elements are closed in the start tag
* Most HTML elements can have attributes

Nested HTML Elements

Most HTML elements can be nested (can contain other HTML elements).

HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.

HTML Document Example

<html>

<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph</p>
</body>

</html>

The example above contains 3 HTML elements.

Example Explained
The < p > element:

<p>This is my first paragraph</p>

The < p > element defines a paragraph in the HTML document
The element has a start tag < p > and an end tag
The element content is: This is my first paragraph
The < body > element:

<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph</p>
</body>

The < body > element defines the body of the HTML document
The element has a start tag < body > and an end tag
The element content is another HTML element (a paragraph)
The < html > element:

<html>

<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph</p>
</body>

</html>

The < html > element defines the whole HTML document.
The element has a start tag < html > and an end tag
The element content is another HTML element (the body)
Don’t Forget the End Tag

Most browsers will display HTML correctly even if you forget the end tag:

<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is a paragraph

The example above will work in most browsers, but don’t rely on it. Forgetting the end tag can produce unexpected results or errors.

Note: Future version of HTML will not allow you to skip end tags.
Empty HTML Elements

HTML elements without content are called empty elements. Empty elements can be closed in the start tag.

< br > is an empty element without a closing tag (it defines a line break).

In XHTML, XML, and future versions of HTML, all elements must be closed.

Adding a slash to the start tag, like < br />, is the proper way of closing empty elements, accepted by HTML, XHTML and XML.

Even if < br > works in all browsers, writing < br /> instead is more future proof.

HTML Tip: Use Lowercase Tags

HTML tags are not case sensitive: < P > means the same as < p >. Plenty of web sites use uppercase HTML tags in their pages.


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-elements/feed/ 0 HTML Basic http://www.shoutbux.com/html-basic/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-basic/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:01:48 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=829 to < h6 > tags. <h1>This is a heading</h1> <h2>This is a heading</h2> <h3>This is a heading</h3> HTML Paragraphs HTML paragraphs are defined with the < p > tag. <p>This is a paragraph</p> <p>This is another paragraph</p> HTML Links HTML links are defined with [...]]]> HTML Headings

HTML headings are defined with the < h1 > to < h6 > tags.

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>

HTML Paragraphs

HTML paragraphs are defined with the < p > tag.

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>

HTML Links

HTML links are defined with the < a > tag.

This is a link

HTML Images

HTML images are defined with the < img > tag.

<img src="w3schools.jpg" width="104" height="142" />


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-basic/feed/ 0 HTML – Introduction http://www.shoutbux.com/html-introduction/ http://www.shoutbux.com/html-introduction/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:49:57 +0000 zemog http://www.shoutbux.com/?p=824 What is HTML?

HTML is a language for describing web pages.

* HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
* HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language
* A markup language is a set of markup tags
* HTML uses markup tags to describe web pages

HTML Tags

HTML markup tags are usually called HTML tags

* HTML tags are keywords surrounded by angle brackets like < html >
* HTML tags normally come in pairs like < b > and
* The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag
* Start and end tags are also called opening tags and closing tags

HTML Documents = Web Pages

* HTML documents describe web pages
* HTML documents contain HTML tags and plain text
* HTML documents are also called web pages

The purpose of a web browser (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) is to read HTML documents and display them as web pages. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses the tags to interpret the content of the page:

<html>
<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>

<p>My first paragraph</p>

</body>
</html>

Explanation:

* The text between < html > and describes the web page
* The text between < body > and is the visible page content
* The text between < h1 > and is displayed as a heading
* The text between < p > and is displayed as a paragraph


]]> http://www.shoutbux.com/html-introduction/feed/ 1