All the HTML code you'll ever need

By Steve Nichols (www.infotechcomms.co.uk)

There was a time when journalists wrote stories. Now they're expected to write for print, write for intranet and internet, possess a degree in rocket science, understand HTML and still find time to make the tea!

The use of content management systems (CMS) means we no longer have to code pages by hand or design them from scratch. But by using basic HTML within the CMS we can make a vast difference to a story.

HTML is a set of codes, or "tags", that allow your browser to display web pages with images, colour and formatted text. But, as a writer you only need to know five basic HTML tags to make your work web-ready.

By the end of this article you will be able to set your text in bold and italics, create a line break, create a new paragraph, create a hyperlink and provide a bulleted list.

Bold and Italics
Syntax: <b>This text will be boldfaced</b>, this text will not.
Italicise a word to <i>emphasise</i> it.

Explanation: An HTML tag is always bracketed by a "<" and a ">". Many HTML tags, including those for boldface and italics, use an opening and closing tag. HTML opening and closing tags are always identical except that the closing tag contains a "/". When the web browser encounters these tags, the tag says to the browser, "starting here, format everything this way until you come to the end tag."

Line Break
Syntax: The following people have received the package:
Bob<br>
Mary<br>
Fred, and<br>
Theresa.

Explanation: Unlike the bold and italics tags, the line break and paragraph tags do not need a closing tag.

New Paragraph
Syntax:

This is the opening of a new paragraph. <p>

This is the opening of the next.

Explanation: The paragraph tag creates vertical space equivalent to two line break tags. However, use the <p> instead of two <br>
tags because the editor may have additional formatting that is applied to paragraphs, but not to line breaks.

Hyperlink
Syntax: <a href="http://www.cib.uk.com"> This is the text of the link</a>

Explanation: The "a" stands for "anchor", which tells the browser that the text is linked to something else online. Opening and closing tags are required. Qualifiers, called "attributes" can be added to opening HTML tags. In this case, the "href" destination is the attribute. Note that the destination address is in quotation marks.

Hint: If you want the hyperlinked page to open in a new window use the target ="_blank" command, as in <a href="http://www.cib.uk.com" target="_blank">

Bulletted lists
Syntax:
<li> One
<li> Two
<li> Three

will look like:

  • One
  • Two
  • Three

With these simple HTML tags, you can make your articles web ready.

You can learn more about HTML at these sites:

Part-based on an article originally written by Mike Morgan at Bisoncreek.com