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There are a lot of other things we could have covered in this set of lessons, but I wanted to keep it to BASIC HTML.
I had mentioned JavaScript as a programming language which can be put into web pages, and then there is Java itself, a cross platform programming languate which is used to create Applets that are compiled and can be imbedded in a web page. These two topics are best reserved for programming courses in Computer Science. There are tags and other attributes of tags which we did not deal with. If you look at the two HTML Resource files in the RESOURCES section of the Table of Contents, you will find those and they will be explained. They are fairly uncommon, so I felt it was best not to clutter the course with them.
A tag we did not cover is the <META> tag. It has many uses, most of which would not be used by the ordinary person, but there is one simple configuration that might be of interest to you.
You put <META> tags between the <HEAD> and </HEAD>l tags after the TITLE. If you use the following one:
in a page, then the part in green after 15 seconds will switch the page to the page whose name is MyFile.html. There would, of course, have to be a correct path to the HTML file, were it not in the same directory as the file with the META tag in it..
This is handy for making a slide show. There is one you can look at called "U of R Slideshow ". It is on the right hand menu near the top in newton.uor.edu. One thing I would (should) add is a link to let you move to the previous and next pages on your own rather than having to wait for the time to run out. Also, the speed of a person's connection will have an effect on the show also.
Another thing you see on many web pages that doesn't require heavy programming is "Animated GIFS." An example is the rotating U of R seal as you first come into this set of lessons. This only requires a program called GIF Builder, which is available at the Jones Center. Basically, it lets you bring a whole bunch of .GIF formatted graphics together and it then displays them one after another. Again, the speed of a person's Internet connection will have an effect on this.
A topic we did not cover is "Image Maps." That allows you to put a graphic on the page, and make hot spots on it, so that when you click there, it is a link and takes you to another page. An example of this is the campus map on newton.uor.edu. A link to it is below.
My intention is to add this as a special lesson later. For now, if you want to know about it, there is a tutorial on it under "Maps (Image Maps)" in Rob Schulters HTML Tag list, which has a link in the TOC. We have programs at the Jones Center to help you create these.
Another topic is HTML EDITORS. In the course, we just used a text editor, because you need to get familiar with the syntax of HTML. There are, however, lots of HTML Editors of various types. Some of them do only a little more than a text editor. Others use the SELECT method. That is, you select text you want for a link, click on an icon that makes a link. That opens a dialogue box that you fill in, and when you click OK, the editor writes the HTML code for the link. Such an editor is available on the Macintoshes in the Jones Center. It is called World Wide Web Weaver V3.0.
Then there are the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) type editors. Front Page for PCs and Claris Home Page for the Mac are examples of these. These create the code for the whole page. All you do is use the buttons to bring in text, graphics and links. I personally don't like these. First, you have to learn how to use all the buttons and bells and whistles of the program, and that is sometimes more complicated than learning HTML. Secondly, there are always times you need to make a small adjustment to a page, and these put so much unnecessary code into a page, that it is almost impossible to find what you are looking for and correct it. Thirdly, they don't usually give you exactly what you are seeing on the screen. But that is my opinion. A lot of pages are made with them. I even have one. It was made with Claris Home Page.
The First Wally Page will appear in a new window.
I have included in the RESOURCES section of the TOC a link to a page which describes lots and lots of HTML editors. There is probably more information there than you want or need. It lets you know what they do, where you can get them, and the cost. What it doesn't do is make any recommendations. Remember that a site with lots of links will have some of them not work, since web companies and products appear and disappear very rapidly. Don't be surprised if you find some on Mag's page.
Mag's Big List of HTML Editors will appear in a new window.
Finally, remember that the web is a GRAPHICS medium. You don't want to get too TEXT intensive. Reading a lot of text on the web is tedious, as you no doubt discovered doing these lessons. I have tried to break that up by putting small amounts of text in before page breaks and highlighting words with a "brick red" color. Whether that has been successful or not, you will know. The goal is to keep people reading the page and coming back for more, so you don't want to make viewing it more trouble than it is worth.
Also, don't go crazy with colors or special font formatting.
| Dave Bragg |
| August 1998 |
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All contents copyright (C) 1998 University of Redlands All rights reserved Revised, Summer 1998 | University of Redlands 1200 East Colton Ave., Box 3080 Redlands, California 92373 (909) 793-2121 |
| URL: http://newton.uor.edu/Courses/BasicHTML/FinalNotes.html
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