Introduction To HTML and URLs

Last Update: 20 February 2000

Home Site And Mirrors

1. Introduction

This collection of pages explains how to use the different HTML document description elements, or tags and how to use these elements to write good, well designed HTML documents. This particular page describes the overall content and organization of the material presented here, reviews some related resources that may be of interest, and describes the meanings of the navigational "buttons" you use to navigate from page to page.

Feedback, comments and suggestions are encouraged, and should be sent to: ian.graham@utoronto.ca. I apologize if I don't have a chance to answer -- I get a lot of mail, and simply don't have time to answer all of it

1.1 My Books on XHTML, HTML, CSS, HTTP and CGI

If you find these documents useful, please have a look at my various books on HTML publishing and design. The HTML 4.0 Sourcebook, published in late 1998, is a good overview of HTML, URLs, HTTP and CGI programming. More recently, I have written The XHTML 1.0 Language and Design Sourcebook, soon to be followed by The XHTML 1.0 Web Development Sourcebook, These books cover, in depth and with many examples of Web design and code, all aspects of Web page and Web application design, including HTML, XHTML, CSS, HTTP, Internet Protocols, URLs, CGI, servlets, and more. Earlier editions of my books were very favorably reviewed by Byte, Dr. Dobbs, PC Magazine and others. So if you're looking for more, have a look and see if these books provide what you're looking for!

1.2 Features Of This Collection

Guidelines for writing good HTML

Descriptions of all HTML elements, with guides and examples to their use

Review Changes between HTML Versions 2, 3.2 and 4.

Information on changes due to the migration to the current standard version, known as HTML 4

Server (CGI) Scripts and Programs

Discussion of the important server-side aspects, such as executing CGI scripts/programs, using forms, etc.

Bibliography

A list of URLs pointing to other information resources related to HTML, URLs, and the World Wide Web.

1.3 Other Resources

I also have a large collection of resources on other issues related to web authoring. This includes a somewhat out-of-date list of tools useful for creating and viewing HTML documents (editors & translators), and also tools useful in maintaining and managing HTTP servers. I also have a set of notes on the HTTP protocol, and on CGI programming. Links to these resources can be found at menu lists at the very top of this page.

1.4 How to Navigate Within these Documents

The collection has an overall Table of Contents, which allows you to jump to documents through the collection "ToC" page. Each page also has navigation anchors at the top and bottom of the page, linking to important documents related to the page. These links connect to:

1.5 Organizational Outline

This document is organized into 9 main sections.

Section 1 Introduction

The Introduction -- What you are reading right now: a brief introduction to the layout of these documents.

Section 2

An introduction to HTML -- describing the naming scheme for HTML document formatting instructions (`elements'), the basic structure of an HTML document and standard naming schemes for files accessed as (or by) HTML documents.

Section 3

HEAD of a Document -- A description of the HEAD part of an HTML document, and of the HTML `elements' valid in the HEAD.

Section 4

BODY of a Document -- A description of the BODY part of an HTML document - the BODY contains the part of the document actually displayed by the `browser' - and of the HTML `elements' valid in the BODY.

Section 5

Miscellaneous HTML -- A description of miscellaneous things, such as how you put comments in HTML documents.

Section 6

HTML 3 -- Thinking of stepping up to HTML 3? This section describes what is really meant by HTML 3 (an experimental project) and what can be expected to come out of it in the near future.

Section 7

Netscape/Microsoft HTML Extensions -- Netscape and Microsoft have implemented several extensions to HTML. This section describes these extensions, and how they can be used safely with regular HTML.

Section 8

Uniform Resource Locators -- This section explains what URLs are, and how you create them.

Section 9

Interaction with the Server -- It is possible for a browser to send information back to a hypertext document server for interpretation by special server-side programs or scripts. This section describes how this mechanism works, and gives several examples.

Section 10

Bibliography A list of important reference documents on HTML and related issues. This list also references information about HTML editors and document translators, as well as information regarding different HTML servers.