Load a Text Editor and Create a Basic Web Page.

All you need to start creating your first web page with HTML is a simple text editor and every computer comes with one of these. If you are using a Microsoft Operating system then click on 'Start - Programs - Accessories - Notepad' if you are using a different Operating System, then you will need to consult your system manual. Don't forget to use the scroll bar to see all of this page! Please read the instruction booklet before proceeding any further and
click here to read the relevant section now.

What do I do next?

To create a web page the first thing you need are tags and as an absolute minimum you will need the following tags; HTML, HEAD and BODY. Each tag must be enclosed within the less than < and greater than > symbols. Each tag that you open has to be closed when you have finished with it, to close a tag you use a forward slash /. The essential tags are opened and closed as shown below.

<HTML>The HTML tag tells a Browser such as Microsoft Explorer or Netscape that what it is reading is a web page.

<BODY>The BODY tag is where all of the code to write the parts of the web page that your visitors will actually see.

</HEAD>To close the tags when you have finished with them, they are written again but this time they include a forward slash.

</BODY>This will close the BODY tag, ensure that the forward slash is always at the beginning of the tag.

</HTML>This will close the HTML tag and is always the last line of code, as this tells the browser that it has now read all of the page.

Now open your text editor from within the Learning HTML folder and type each of the tags exactly as shown below and save this as test.html

<HTML>
<HEAD>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

When you have done this return to this page and click on the TEST button below. Then click on the Back button of your browser to return to this page.

You should see just a blank white page and it may not look much but you have now created your first web page! If this has not worked re-check your code and try again, don't forget to save any changes and click on Refresh in your browser to view them.

In fact all you need to create a web page are the opening and closing HTML tags but to create a useful web page you will need the six tags as shown above.

The HEAD tag is where the code goes that a visitor will not see, code such as Meta tags but this is beyond the scope of this tutorial. However there is one element of HTML enclosed within the HEAD tags that your visitors will see, this tag is the TITLE tag. The TITLE tag is used by search engines to supply the title in their listings but the title tag can also be seen by your visitors, as it supplies the first words seen at the very top of the page.

When you have added the opening and closing tags for HTML, HEAD and BODY and TESTED your work, return to the top of this page and click on HOME this will take you back to the main menu where you can select the next stage of your tutorial.

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