The purpose of this page is to illlustrate some basic HTML tags. That's why there is a dull "default" background, few graphics, no animation, and no fancy interactive features. Have patience; you'll learn about those in a few weeks.
Notice that this is straight, flush-left text, as opposed to the centered headline above. "Default" text will appear within the body of your HTML page whenever no tag is specified (or where the tag is incorrectly used).
Most of the text on this sample page is separated by paragraph breaks which create blank space between the lines. Here are two lines of text, separated by a forced line break instead of a paragraph. This is the first line:
and this is the second. Note the lack of space. Text lines do not naturally break in HTML. You have to force them with a line break or paragraph tag.
Blank spaces that you may put in between lines of text or other elements are meaningless to HTML and will not appear to any readers using a Web browser. However, they may help you to conceptualize and edit your page, so feel free to use them.
Headlines come in a variety of sizes. Here are some examples, all of which have been centered:
Here is an unordered (bullet) list:
Hypertext links are a bit more complicated-looking in HTML code, even if they appear very subtle on the browser.
This is a link to the Simmons College home page. You would click on the words "Simmons College" to bring it up.
This is a link to the agenda for the first day of this course. Note in the source code that there is no URL or path for this second example, just a file name. That's because the file is located in the same directory as this page, so no path is needed . Keep this difference in mind; missing or inaccurate paths are the major cause of HTML page errors.
Graphics are much like hypertext links. The graphic is a separate file which you call up with a line of HTML code. The same warning about missing or incorrect paths applies with graphics as well as hypertext links. More advanced HTML codes can make the graphic a "clickable" link, change the size of the graphic, or position it in relation to surrounding text.
HTML generate one graphic element all by itself, without a separate file: a hard rule, such as the one at the bottom of this paragraph. Within the HTML code, you can specify the length and width of the hard rule.
There are many, many more HTML tags, such as the ones hidden in this paragraph. They can be mixed, matched, and often nested to give you a lot of creative freedom. Consult the source code of pages you like, look at the online primers, and experiment!