Troubleshooting

First Steps/Tips

 


Some of the first steps to take:

  • Begin developing an idea for your personal web page.
    Do you have a topic?
    How do you want it to look?
  • Surf! Look at web pages that others have created.
    Look especially at pages that are the TYPE of page that you intend to make.

  • Check the SOURCE ! If you are on a web page you like, you can see exactly how the designer did it by using this tip.

Here are a few tips for you:

        • Almost all HTML tags come in pairs. Make sure you type both the opening and closing tags for each element.
          Check them on this chart

        • You should try to put each tag or tag set on a separate line, rather than running all the text and tags together. Keeping them separate makes them easier to read and to update.

        • If quotation marks are indicated around an element (such as around the WIDTH attribute in the HR tag), be sure you don't forget them!

        • Don't forget both angle brackets around the tag elements.

        • You can type the tags in upper or lower case letters. It will read the same way to a browser.

        • HTML ignores line breaks/returns on the keyboard. To do these you will need to use the <BR> tag. Because of this, you could type all the tags in one continual line, but it is better form to place each element on a line of its own. HTML also ignores word processor commands like italics and centering. Again, special tags exist for these.

        • You won't believe how much annoyance one missing angle bracket, quotation mark or" / "can cause, until it happens to YOU!

      Avoid Overlapping Tags

      Consider this example of HTML: 

          <B>This is an example of <I>overlapping</B>
    HTML tags.</I>

      The word overlapping is contained within both the <B> and <I> tags. A browser might be confused by this coding and might not display it the way you intend. The only way to know is to check each popular browser (which is time-consuming and impractical).

      In general, avoid overlapping tags. Look at your tags and try pairing them up. Tags should be paired without an intervening tag in between. Look again at the example above. You cannot pair the bold tags without another tag in the middle (the first definition tag). Try matching your coding up like this to see if you have any problem areas that should be fixed before your release your files to a server. Another way to think of it is Tupperware bowls. Each bowl has a matching lid and will fit inside the other if done correctly, if you match the wrong lid with the wrong bowl nothing will fit. This is also referred to as nesting.

      Watch those Inserts.

      HTML protocol allows you to insert links within other HTML tags: 

        <H1><A HREF="Destination.html">My
heading</A></H1>

      Do not insert HTML tags within an anchor: 

        <A HREF="Destination.html"><H1>My
heading</H1></A>

      Spelling:

      90% of your problems with HTML can be traced to spelling errors or omitted quotation marks.

      Resources on the Web

      Shareware for Viewing and Manipulating Images:

      LView Pro
      http://www.lview.com/

      Paint Shop Pro
      http://www.jasc.com/

      Webgrafx
      http://www.group42.com/graphx.htm

      Graphic Workshop for Windows
      http://www.mindworkshop.com/alche my/gww.html

      Graphic Sources: