Absolute beginners' HTML

How to make a website without spending any money.
By Jon Storm

 

Main Index

Getting started
Basic structure
Formatting text
The <FONT> tag
Using images
Links
Getting it onto the web
Getting noticed
And finally...

Most useful HTML tags
HTML Do's and Don't's

Useful extras

Tools for webpage making
Windows tricks and tips
Dictionary of computer jargon
Miscellaneous info on the Web


I wrote this website a long time ago, and I haven't updated it for more than ten years, so it is rather dated. Today there are easier ways to throw a simple website together than coding it by hand in a text editor, which is what this teaches you to do. But everything in here still works and is still valid HTML, and it gives you a good basic grounding on what it going on underneath the hood, so to speak, so it is still here. These days I mostly use the excellent Dreamweaver for creating websites, but it's still very useful to be able to tweak the HTML by hand when it isn't doing quite what I want!

Jon Storm, January 2015

 

Want to make a website? It's not difficult. You can learn the basics pretty quickly, and that's what I'm going to show you. You don't need any special software, you don't need to go on a course : in fact you don't need to spend any money at all. All you need is a computer (practically anything will do), an internet connection (which presumably you already have, or else how are you looking at this page?), a browser (ditto), and a basic text editor like Windows Notepad. That's it! You're ready to go.

I'm not going to try and teach you everything, just what you need to get a decent website up and running, with the emphasis very much on doing things the easy way - the "It still counts as a goal if it goes in off your bottom" approach. I'll try not to use jargon, but if I do say something you aren't sure about, you can look it up in my Dictionary of computer jargon. If you aren't too sure of yourself in Windows, have a look at Windows tips and tricks, which explains a few useful things like how to flick quickly between different windows, and how to cut and paste text with minimum fuss.

All you need to do now is start. I recommend beginning at the beginning, so click on Getting started here, or pick it from the index to your right...


All the material on this site is copyright © Jon Storm 2000, 2001.


Useful HTML tags; Dictionary of computer jargon; Ultraspace; Jon Storm