Tags
Tags are what make HTML work. The Web Browser that you use interprets the tags and text in an
HTML file and then displays (renders) it for you. There are (generally) two types of tags: "open/close" and "stand-alone". There are a lot more of the open/close tags than stand-alone ones. The open/close tags have a starting tag (like <center> or <body>) and an ending tag (as in </center> or </body>, respectively). A stand-alone tag (like <BR> or <LI>) has no closing tag.
The content inside, or encapsulated by, the start and end tags of an open/close tag is what is affected by that tag. This can occur on a visual level, as in changing the encapsulated text's font face or font color,
or in a less pronounced way, as in supplying the location (path) of an image.
These are examples of some tags and the resultant output
Example 1:
<center> This text will be centered </center>
Would give you...
This text will be centered
Example 2:
<FONT FACE="COURIER">This text is in a courier font</FONT>
Would give you...
This text is in a courier font
Example 3:
<font color="green">This text would be green</font>
Would give you...
This text would be green
Attributes
One important thing to realize is that, in the 3rd example above, "color" is NOT a tag. It is an
attribute of the "font" tag. An attribute is something that is associated with a particular tag. For example,
color (color of the text), size (size of the text), and face (type of font) are all attributes of the "font" tag.
You do not have to use all the attributes listed for a particular tag. You can select only the attributes you'd like to use in the design of your page.
An often-used tag/attribute combination is the <body> tag. Consider the example below:
<body bgcolor="black" text="lime" link="blue" alink="white" vlink="gray">
The <body> tag is used to generate a format for your web page. In the above example, the background color would be black, the text would be lime green, "hyperlinks" (a link to another web page) would be blue if they haven't been visited already, the hyperlink text would blink white when it is clicked and the hyperlink text would be gray if the browser has visited that page and then come back to this one. bgcolor, text, link, alink, & vlink are all attributes of the <body> tag.
For a full listing of HTML tags and their attributes, please see the Tag Index.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are essentially a method by which you can transport your page's visitors to a different page, or to a different HTML page for your site. Consider the example below:
<A HREF="http://lasalle.edu">Go to LaSalle's Page</A>
The words "Go to LaSalle's Page" would be highlighted in the color denoted by the link attribute in the body tag for that page. When a visitor to your site places
the mouse pointer over it, the pointer will turn into a little hand (with the index finger extended). This means that the visitor can then click on that text and be
transported to the URL denoted in the HREF attribute in your HTML. In other words, the visitor could click on the text and their browser would access the University's Web Site.
HREF is an attribute of the <A> (or "anchor") tag. You can do a lot with this special attribute. Take a look at this next example.
<A HREF="mailto:yourname@lasalle.edu">Mail Me!</A>
When someone clicks on the "Mail Me!" text, they'll see a new window pop up that will allow them to send you an e-mail message(Assuming their Internet Browser is set up
for that). It's a real easy way of allowing your page's visitors to send you e-mail, quite handy!
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