HomePage MadeEasy !!

Viewing HTML documents can be somewhat compared to going to the theater and watching a play, in the sense that there is always a lot of activity backstage which we, in the audience, take no notice of and have no idea of.
 
So, learning HTML is somewhat like learning what goes on backstage--or, in our case, backscreen!:)
 
Following the analogy, as we deal with HTML, working on our Home Pages, we are then using, say, the language of cyber play-directing and acting, of cyber stage prompts and lay-outs, etc.. The computer screen becomes, so to speak, the stage where the scripts of our Home Pages are enacted, under our direction, the "Home Page directors," or Webmasters.
 
 
Check the View menu item on your Browser. There, you will probably find an option called Source, or View Source. Make sure you have a document opened, then click on the menu option Source, or View Source, and see what happens!
 
Yes!   You get another screen (or Notepad opens, if your Browser is Internet Explorer), on which screen you find a very large number of signs like "<" and ">", right?
 
That's the backstage, or backscreen, of the document which your browser is presently displaying.
 
This backstage, or backscreen, of a document is usually referred to by the terms source code or just the term source, to make it shorter and easier for frequent reference.
 
 
In a sense, the source code of a document written in HTML can also be thought of as something like the negative of a photograph: you hardly ever look at the negative, although it was the source out of which it was possible to make a print of the photograph you are looking at.
 
If you are not a photographer, you will not be interested in the negative of a photograph. Likewise, when we do not understand HTML, we are not interested in the source code of a document.
 
But now, that you have chosen to come to this page...well, this means you are going to begin taking a certain interest (possibly also curiosity) in the source of html documents!:)
 
 
In this, and any other section of your HomePage MadeEasy where we deal with html coding, you will be seeing that there is always a dual way of writing: we show what appears on the screen (the Browser Output) as well as what goes on backscreen (the Source Code, which is the Browser Input, and thus not what we see on the screen, but what motivates, so to speak, the Browser to produce a particular Output).
 
Putting it in a differet way, you can think of the Source as the cause for the Output, and likewise of the Output as the consequence of the Source:
 

Source Code:	the cause
Output:	the consequence

 
 

 
You will have noticed that we have been using different colors as we refer to the Source and the Output of a document.
 
There is a good reason for this: every time your eyes fall onto a string of text written in dark red you automatically know this is the Source Code for some text that we've been discussing. By the same token, whatever you see in dark blue, you instantly know it is text displayed just as it appears on the screen when a string of code at stake is used.
 
There is yet another color that we make use of, in order to help you see instantly which kind of text string you are looking at: green. Text that you see in green, you can automatically assume that it refers to the HTML-meaning and/or related observations concerning a string of Source Code.
 
Thus, the three colors that you come across, whenever we are dealing with HTML, are:
 
 

Source Code:	the cause
Output:	the consequence
Meaning:	effect achieved, cause-consequence relationship, related observations

 
This use of color-coding of course makes our encoding of these documents more complex, since we must keep changing the font color, and pay attention that we get the codes right! As you will find out, it is very easy to forget small details which can mess up the entirety of our document, when we are writing HTML--especially if we do it on a simple text editor, as the page you now have on your screen has been produced.
 
But the work pays off in the Output!:)
You can easily identify the nature of the text that you are reading!
 
 

 
Let's now get started with what is strictly necessary in order to make an HTML document. In other words, what kind of basic input do we need to give the Browser?
Here we go:
 
 

Basic Source Code for HTML Documents:

<HTML> <BODY> (Here you place your text and your images) </BODY> </HTML>

 
Try copying and pasting on a blank document both the source code given above, and the short observation made in parenthesis regarding where text goes.
 
Then, save (memorize) the document in html format. You can call it, say, myfirstdoc.html (or anything you would like, for as long as the file extension--the group of letters after the dot--is html).
 
Now, load your myfirstdoc.html document on your Browser.
 
Voilá! It loads!
 
Congratulations!:)
You have produced your first html document!
 
Now, go back to the text editor, [1] type any string of text you wish, in place of the original string "(Here you place your text and your images)", and [2] save the document under a different name (use the menu option "save as..."!). This new document, you might call myfirstdoc2.html, for example.
 
Finally, load your myfirstdoc2.html document on your Browser.
 
Well...what do you conclude?...
 
Yes! Yes! You can now produce simple HTML documents, all on your own!
 
Isn't it great?!:)
 
All right. The documents that you are able to produce will be very basic documents, for the time being. But that's how we start! We ought to begin at basic level. We'll evidently be building on this, until you are able to write a document at least as complex as the one that you are reading now. We just have to go step by step, but surely we can get there!
 
 

 
If you have learned how to speak and write your own native language, then you surely can learn to code documents in HTML. as far as our purposes are concerned, it is really just another language--Browser-language, if you will.
 
Easier than languages that human beings speak, as we use Browser-language [1] we do not have to worry about pronunciation, [2] nor are we faced with possible connotations and ambiguities, and [3] we have a smaller and less complex set of grammar rules to cope with, as well as [4] a far shorter vocabulary listing to learn.
 
The drawback, regarding Browser-language, is that, differently from what goes on when we use human language and make a grammatical mistake (i.e., mistype a tag or combine tags inappropriately, in Browser-language) or choose a word unprecisely (i.e., a tag or attribute), the Browser has no capacity whatsoever to try to understand us beyond and despite our small faults and difficulties, as a human being would easily be able to!
 
In sum, if HTML (Browser-language) is far simpler to learn and use than human language, we "pay" for this greater simplicity, so to speak, with the absolute requirement of strict precision--or the Browser cannot understand us (this means: our document will not display the way we intend, or maybe it will not display at all!).
 
Also differently from human language, which we usually serve ourselves of to engage in dialogs, Browser-language is a one-way language. We use it to talk to the Browser; the Browser, however, does not talk back to us using the same language.
 
This is a bit like when we use human language to talk to our pets: we tell our dog "sit!" and the dog sits. But it cannot talk back to us and say "I'm uncomfortable sitting here". The dog can but bark.
 
The Browser does not bark, but gives us other signals, which we learn to interpret: it does not react properly to our commands, or it does not react at all. When this happens, we know we have failed in communicating with the Browser. In these situations, we say there are bugs in our coding. We must then debug our HTML document (i.e., our means of communication with the Browser) so it can be properly interpreted by a Browser.
 
Communication is the main function and purpose of language use. The same applies when we are making use of Browser-language (HTML). We wish to communicate with the Browser! When we communicate well, the Browser performs everything that we tell it to! So, what we'll be aiming at, in this section, is to learn to communicate with the Browser!
 
 

 
Anyway, at this point, if you have just gotten space for a HomePage, you know enough Browser-language to be able to produce your first HTML document and place it on Your Home Page!
 
It will not be a fancy document, but it will have been made by YOU!:)
 
You can, for example, place as your first text on your Home Page something like:
 

Welcome to (your name)'s Homepage! This page is under construction at present. So, please return later.

 
And, in just a little while more, you'll be able to produce a Page like:
 

Welcome to (your name)'s Homepage! This page is under construction at present. So, please return later.

 
This one looks more elegant than the first, doesn't it?!
In just a little while (after our next step) you will also be able to produce a Page like the one below, if you prefer it to the example right above:
 

Welcome to (your name)'s Homepage! This page is under construction at present. So, please return later. Make good use of your short visit, and Click Here now to enjoy one of my favorite pages!

 
So, read on, and you will be able to make, all by yourself!, a simple but nice-looking page to place on Your Home Page!
 
Ah!...but you don't know what to do to make your document appear on your Home Page?
Most likely the Web Site that provides you the space for your Home Page also provides some instruction regarding how you can place a document on line--that is, upload the document.
If you still cannot figure out how to do it, despite the instructions you find on line, or if by chance your space provider offers no tutorial regarding how you go about placing your documents on line, whichever the case, you are welcome to drop us a line requesting that we give priority to dealing with issues related to uploading documents. As not all Web Sites offer identical means for uploading documents, it will be helpful to you that you mention who is your Web Space Provider. We'll file your request according to the date we receive it: all requested topics are dealt with according to the order they arrive.
 

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