Home About us Services Testimonial Live Chat Contact us

Guide to HTML

I N T R O D U C T I O N




What is unique about this guide

This document is designed to serve a particular niche. It is intended as a concise "cheat sheet" that you can use to look up the correct forms of tags as you are creating web pages.

This guide is designed for people who know enough not to need step-by-step instructions, but who haven't memorized the exact format of every HTML tag yet. If you want a "quick reference" that you can glance at without having to read through additional descriptive material, this guide is for you.


Which tags are included

The other distinguishing aspect of this guide is what it includes. The Bare Bones Guide to HTML is intended to include all of the tags in common usage on Web pages today. Specifically, the Guide lists the following:

The development of HTML has been a confusing process, as attempts to adopt formal standards have often been overrun by developments in the marketplace. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the official standards body for HTML. The current W3C recommendation is HTML 4.0.

In its Position Statement on HTML, W3C recommends that information providers use the HTML 4.0 specification, but that tools also be backward-compatible with earlier versions. Therefore, version 4.0 of the Guide to HTML includes all the HTML 4.0 tags, but distinguishes tags introduced in version 4.0 from those in version 3.2 as well.

All of the Netscape and Microsoft extensions to HTML have been included, with the exception of some server interaction tags such as server push animation. Some of these extensions will not display properly if people viewing your pages are using another browser, so you should think about your audience before deciding whether to use them.


 

FORMATTING OF THIS DOCUMENT

For clarity, different attributes have been separated out that can be applied to the same tag onto separate lines. Generally, multiple attributes can be combined in the same tag.

Tags are listed in upper case for ease of reading, although most tags are not case sensitive.

SYMBOLS USED

URL    URL of an external file (or just file name if in the same directory)
?      Arbitrary number (i.e. <H?> means <H1>, <H2>, <H3>, etc.)
%      Arbitrary percentage (i.e. <HR WIDTH="%"> means <HR WIDTH="50%">, etc.)
***    Arbitrary text (i.e. ALT="***" means fill in with text)    
$$$$$$ Arbitrary hex (i.e. BGCOLOR="#$$$$$$" means BGCOLOR="#00FF1C", etc.)
:::    Arbitrary date (i.e. DATETIME=":::" means "1994-11-05T08:15:30" etc.)
@      Email address (i.e. "mailto:@" means "mailto:kevin@werbach.com" etc.)
,,,    Comma-delimited (i.e. COORDS=",,," means COORDS="0,0,50,50", etc.)
|      Alternatives (i.e. ALIGN=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER means pick one of these)
 
 

COMPATIBILITY

(remember, HTML is evolving and browser implementations vary)
     (no notation) In the HTML 3.2 spec.; should work on all browsers 
4.0  Introduced in HTML 4.0 recommendation
N1   Netscape extension introduced with Navigator version 1.0 or 1.1
N2   Netscape extension introduced with Navigator version 2.0 
N3   Netscape extension introduced with Navigator version 3.0
N4   Netscape extension introduced with Navigator/Communicator version 4.0
MS   Microsoft Internet Explorer extension
*    Netscape extension now included in the HTML 4.0 specification