HTML for Not Yet Techies

HTML is for you if you want to make money on the Internet in the course of your computer career, you’ll have an easier time if you know HTML. That’s true if you have your own web site, even if you use an editor such as FrontPage 2000. It’s true if you want to work in Internet web site design or maintenance for a company. Even if you want to write Java programs, you will need to know how Java fits into a web site.

Even if you see into the future of the Net (which, amazingly, many people don’t) and see Virtual Reality on the not too far distant horizon, you will need to learn HyperTest Markup Language -- HTML -- before you can expect to start programming with Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML).

For instance, I’ve instructed this page’s HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to display the top line as "H1," which means to display the page title in the largest typeface.

The magic of HyperText Markup Language lies in its ability to link documents or sections of documents together. The "hypertext" activates the Worldwide Web "hypertext protocol" (the "http" all web surfers know and love), so it sends your browser to the specified url.

It’s one of those things that we take for granted after we’ve been online for a few weeks, but is truly an amazing power. Through those simple links, it’s possible to access most of the data and information in the world.

It will expand and grow as computer bandwidth and capabilities and our needs and aspirations and imaginations grow. It will not disappear. It will continue as the foundation of DHTML (Dynamic HTML) and the previously mentioned VRML, and whatever it evolves into in the future.

There are classes and tutorials available offline and online. Also, many books and CD-ROMs.

Every web site you go to can teach you something about HTML. Simply click on View, and then Page Source. Right before your eyes, you’ll see that gorgeous web page disappear and turn into a mish mash of text with lots of <>s in it. Combine that with book learning and creating your own simple web sites, which you can do with any ASCII text editor (I just use Wordpad), and you’ll soon pick up all the basics.

You could actually use Wordpad to create all the web pages you’ll ever need, but that would be tedious. Editors such as FrontPage 2000, Hot Dog, Dreamweaver and Fusion were created to take the detail work out, leaving you free to apply your creativity to your web design.

My own advice, for what you think it’s worth. The worst thing Netscape ever did was introduce frames. I've glanced over the frames sections of my books, but I haven’t tried to learn those HTML tags. I don’t consider learning frames any more necessary to writing it than learning legal jargon is necessary to for nonlawyers to speak English.