Week Two | Part One

Tags

The best place to start is by understanding the basic component of markup code that tell how a Web page should display information. This basic component is called a tag.

Tags to tell a Web browser about how to present your Web page. But once you become familiar with them, you will discover that tags go beyond being the tools of your page design:

• Tags tell a Web browser what rules it should use to interpret your design.
• Tags provide search engines like Google with information about your Web page.
• Tags allow visitors to connect your Web page to other resources on the Web.

A tag is a predetermined letter or series of letters inside two chevrons, or angle brackets. Some examples:

   <a>
   <div>
   <h1>
   <img>
   <p>
   <table>
   <ul>

These tags are not made up by the designer, but by the mark-up conventions created for HTML 4.01.

Tag letters (also known as elements) are nothing more than the abbreviation of a longer word or term. The Cheat Sheet in HTML for Dummies provides both the element name and the common name for a number of html tags.

There are over one hundred different (x)html tags. Fortunately, a working knowledge of about twenty of them will accomplish 95% of your design requirements.

Please go to Week Two Part 2 »