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Another HTML primer? No, there are lots of those - This is even more basic than a primer. This is for folks who want to know exactly what HTML is in the first place, what it's used for, and where to go to start learning. And what are all these "browser issues" and "compatibility issues" anyway? 
The ABCs of Building Web Sites - This beginner's tutorial will take the clueless newby through the entire process of building a Web site.
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is not a programming language like BASIC, COBOL or C++. It's more properly described as a markup language, or a page-description language. What it does is allow you to create pages of text, images and other elements, that can be viewed using a software application called a browser. Using HTML, you can create pages of text with various types of formatting, similar to that created with a word processor. More exciting, you can include hyperlinks, which can lead to just about anything, just about anywhere. Remember that an HTML file is just a set of instructions for creating a page on a computer screen. Makers of browsers can have their products interpret those instructions in whatever way they choose. There are millions of Web users out there, using the whole gamut of computer equipment to connect to the Web. Windows, Mac, Unix…desktops, laptops, TVs, you name it. There are also many different types of browser programs out there, and all display Web pages in slightly different ways. In fact, the two major browser makers, Netscape and Microsoft, have intentionally increased, rather than reduced, the differences between their browsers, so that pages designed for one browser may not look correct in the other. To further complicate matters, not only have the browsers each been upgraded to new versions several times, the language of HTML itself has been revised as well, and is now in version 4.0. This chaos of different operating systems, different browser versions and different kinds of HTML code means that designing for the Web is a much less exact science than designing for more traditional media. As a Web publisher, you can never be sure how your material will appear on every system out there. You must also think about the intended audience for your site, and take their technological limitations into account when designing your pages. To oversimplify a bit, the latest and greatest Web techniques tend not to work on systems that are older and/or low-powered. For example, if your grandmother with her 286 PC and 14.4 kHz modem tries to log on to a Web page that has all the latest animated graphics, audio and nifty new design features, it just isn't likely to load properly, if at all. Might even crash the whole computer! Whee! Know Your HistoryHTML was not originally designed with page layout in mind, and its first versions offered very limited formatting tools. We old geezers who've been around since 1995 or so remember light gray pages which featured headings, plain text, bulleted lists and little more. Later versions of HTML added more capabilities. Publishers also found ways to use HTML tags in creative ways to get desired results - for example, the use of HMTL tables to create columns of text. The limitations of HTML have also spawned many other languages and systems that allow the delivery of text, graphics and other media in various cool ways. Some of these, like Javascript, are built into the recent versions of browsers, while others, like Flash or Shockwave, require you to download a "plug-in" in order to use them. Once you've downloaded and installed the appropriate plug-in, your browser can recognize these media types. HTML 3.2 was the standard for a long time (a year or two), and most of the pages on the Web now more or less conform to it. The latest version, HTML 4.0, allows a lot of neat new tricks, and is easier to use to boot. The problem is that neither of the two major browsers really supports it correctly. For marketing reasons best known to themselves, both Netscape and Microsoft have chosen to develop "proprietary" tags that work only with their browser, not the other guy's, and not to fully implement the HTML 4.0 standards. So, although 4.0 offers exciting new tools, most designers still refrain from using many of the new features. Sound like a mess? It is! But you don't need to worry about exactly what version of HTML you're using. Browsers are supposed to be backward-compatible, meaning that newer browsers should display old pages just fine. It's using the newer HTML tags that can cause problems, especially if a lot of your viewers are using older browsers. A good HTML editor (such as HomeSite - see http://WebDevelopersJournal.com/articles/homesite_4.html) will keep you clued in as to which tags are safe to use, and which are doubtful. How to create HTML Files?Well, HTML files are really just text files, so you can type them into any word processor. However, that would be tedious with a capital T. There are lots of good HTML editors out there that give you a lot of handy tools to make creating HTML go much more quickly. HomeSite, Nachos, HotDog, FlexEd and Agile are all contenders. HomeSite's my favorite, but it's also probably the most expensive. There are several cheap shareware HTML editors listed in our Web Tools Download Section, so hop on over there and score one. Basically, an HTML editor is just a word processor that has a bunch of shortcuts and macros for common HTML editing tasks. For example, instead of typing in tags by hand, you have a little button for each of the most common tags. A good HTML editor also includes a good search and replace feature, and lets you save often-used snippets of HTML code. Once you learn the ins and outs of the editor of your choice, you'll be able to create pages pretty quickly. What about so-called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) page design tools like Netscape Composer, Microsoft FrontPage, or Adobe Pagemill? These packages allow you to design Web pages in a familiar page-layout style editor, without knowing much HTML. Some refer to these as "HTML editors," but the term is more properly applied to software that you use to edit HTML directly, like those described above. "Easy to use" programs like these may be tempting, but savvy designers tend to scorn them for several reasons. These "automated" tools often generate code that is not really very good HTML, or that has a lot of bizarre proprietary junk mixed in with it. FrontPage in particular is famous for creating huge files and complicated directory structures. Also, once you've created a page with one of these WYSIWYG tools, it may be difficult or impossible to edit them with anything else, because of nonstandard HTML tags and extraneous code. The best argument against using one of these cutesy things is that it's a cop-out. The Web is built on HTML, and the more you know about it, the more you'll understand how to design attractive, functional pages. "Friendly" editors like FrontPage may be fine for slapping up a few quick pages, but if you intend to get even somewhat serious about Web design, believe me, you'll be glad you have a good solid grounding in basic HTML. In the next column, we'll cut to the real hot stuff - Hyperlinks! Hyperlinks allow you to include anything in the known Universe in your Web page. We'll see how to include graphics, sound and other goodies, and how files fit together into a whole Web site. For now, grab a good HTML editor, and a good tutorial or book, and start learning those ABCs. Here are some good places to get started. HTML in Action
HTML Book Reviews
HTML Discussion Group
Web Tools Download Section
Web Software Reviews
W3C's home page for HTML
NCSA's HTML Primer
The ABCs of Building Web Sites - This beginner's tutorial will take the clueless newby through the entire process of building a Web site.
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