The original HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document. HTML tags were intended to define the content of the document like:

<p>This is a paragraph</p>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>

When tags like <font> and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2 specification, it started a nightmare for web developers. Development of large web sites where fonts and color information had to be added to every single Web page, became a long, expensive and unduly painful process.

What is so Great About HTML 4.0 ?

In HTML 4.0 all formatting can be removed from the HTML document and stored in a separate style sheet.

Because HTML 4.0 separates the presentation from the document structure, we have what we always needed: Total control of presentation layout without messing up the document content.

What Should You do About it ?

Do not use presentation attributes inside your HTML tags if you can avoid it. Start using styles! Please read our CSS tutorial to learn about style sheets.

Do not use deprecated tags. Visit our complete HTML 4.01 Reference to see which tags and attributes that are deprecated.

Prepare Yourself for XHTML

XHTML is the “new” HTML. The most important thing you can do is to start writing valid HTML 4.01. Also start writing your tags in lower case. Always close your tag elements. Never end a paragraph without </p>.

NOTE: The official HTML 4.01 recommends the use of lower case tags.

If you want to read about how this web site was converted to XHTML, please visit our XHTML tutorial.

Validate Your HTML Files as HTML 4.01

An HTML document is validated against a Document Type Definition (DTD). Before an HTML file can be properly validated, a correct DTD must be added as the first line of the file.

The HTML 4.01 Strict DTD includes elements and attributes that have not been deprecated or do not appear in framesets:

The HTML 4.01 Transitional DTD includes everything in the strict DTD plus deprecated elements and attributes:

The HTML 4.01 Frameset DTD includes everything in the transitional DTD plus frames as well:

Even if a lot of people are using it, you should try to avoid it, and use styles instead.

The HTML <font> Tag

With HTML code like this, you can specify both the size and the type of the browser output :

Font Attributes

The <font> Tag Should NOT be Used

The <font> tag is deprecated in the latest versions of HTML (HTML 4 and XHTML).

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has removed the <font> tag from its recommendations. In future versions of HTML, style sheets (CSS) will be used to define the layout and display properties of HTML elements. 

The Right Way to Do It – With Styles

Set the font of text
This example demonstrates how to set the font of a text.

Set the font size of text
This example demonstrates how to set the font size of a text.

Set the font color of text
This example demonstrates how to set the color of a text.

Set the font, font size, and font color of text
This example demonstrates how to set the font, font size, and font color of a text.

Examples

Vertical frameset
This example demonstrates how to make a vertical frameset with three different documents.

Horizontal frameset
This example demonstrates how to make a horizontal frameset with three different documents.

(You can find more examples at the bottom of this page)

Frames

With frames, you can display more than one HTML document in the same browser window. Each HTML document is called a frame, and each frame is independent of the others.

The disadvantages of using frames are:

• The web developer must keep track of more HTML documents
• It is difficult to print the entire page

The Frameset Tag

• The <frameset> tag defines how to divide the window into frames
• Each frameset defines a set of rows or columns
• The values of the rows/columns indicate the amount of screen area each row/column will occupy

The Frame Tag

• The <frame> tag defines what HTML document to put into each frame

In the example below we have a frameset with two columns. The first column is set to 25% of the width of the browser window. The second column is set to 75% of the width of the browser window. The HTML document “frame_a.htm” is put into the first column, and the HTML document “frame_b.htm” is put into the second column:

Note: The frameset column size value can also be set in pixels (cols=”200,500″), and one of the columns can be set to use the remaining space (cols=”25%,*”).

Basic Notes – Useful Tips

If a frame has visible borders, the user can resize it by dragging the border. To prevent a user from doing this, you can add noresize=”noresize” to the <frame> tag.

Add the <noframes> tag for browsers that do not support frames.

Important: You cannot use the <body></body> tags together with the <frameset></frameset> tags! However, if you add a <noframes> tag containing some text for browsers that do not support frames, you will have to enclose the text in <body></body> tags! See how it is done in the first example below.

More Examples

How to use the <noframes> tag
This example demonstrates how to use the <noframes> tag.

Mixed frameset
This example demonstrates how to make a frameset with three documents, and how to mix them in rows and columns.

Frameset with noresize=”noresize”
This example demonstrates the noresize attribute. The frames are not resizable. Move the mouse over the borders between the frames and notice that you can not move the borders.

Navigation frame
This example demonstrates how to make a navigation frame. The navigation frame contains a list of links with the second frame as the target. The file called “tryhtml_contents.htm” contains three links. The source code of the links:
<a href =”frame_a.htm” target =”showframe”>Frame a</a><br>
<a href =”frame_b.htm” target =”showframe”>Frame b</a><br>
<a href =”frame_c.htm” target =”showframe”>Frame c</a>
The second frame will show the linked document.

Inline frame
This example demonstrates how to create an inline frame (a frame inside an HTML page).

Jump to a specified section within a frame
This example demonstrates two frames. One of the frames has a source to a specified section in a file. The specified section is made with <a name=”C10″> in the “link.htm” file.

Jump to a specified section with frame navigation
This example demonstrates two frames. The navigation frame (content.htm) to the left contains a list of links with the second frame (link.htm) as a target. The second frame shows the linked document. One of the links in the navigation frame is linked to a specified section in the target file. The HTML code in the file “content.htm” looks like this: <a href =”link.htm” target =”showframe”>Link without Anchor</a><br><a href =”link.htm#C10″ target =”showframe”>Link with Anchor</a>.

Frame Tags

HTML Layout – Using Tables

Same Layout – Color Added

Examples

Dividing a part of an HTML page into table columns is very easy to do. To let you experiment with it, we have put together this simple example.

HTML Joke

Student: “How do you spell HTML?”

HTML Basic Document

<html>
<head>
<title>Document name goes here</title>
</head>

<body>
Visible text goes here
</body>

</html>

Heading Elements

<h1>Largest Heading</h1>

<h2> . . . </h2>
<h3> . . . </h3>
<h4> . . . </h4>
<h5> . . . </h5>

<h6>Smallest Heading</h6>

Text Elements

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<br> (line break)
<hr> (horizontal rule)
<pre>This text is preformatted</pre>

Logical Styles

<em>This text is emphasized</em>
<strong>This text is strong</strong>
<code>This is some computer code</code>

Physical Styles

<b>This text is bold</b>
<i>This text is italic</i>

Links, Anchors, and Image Elements

<a href=”http://www.example.com/”>This is a Link</a>
<a href=”http://www.example.com/”><img src=”URL” alt=”Alternate Text”></a>
<a href=”mailto:webmaster@example.com”>Send e-mail</a>

A named anchor:
<a name=”tips”>Useful Tips Section</a>
<a href=”#tips”>Jump to the Useful Tips Section</a>

Unordered list

<ul>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Next item</li>
</ul>

Ordered list

<ol>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Next item</li>
</ol>

Definition list

<dl>
<dt>First term</dt>
<dd>Definition</dd>
<dt>Next term</dt>
<dd>Definition</dd>
</dl>

Tables

<table border=”1″>
<tr>
<th>someheader</th>
<th>someheader</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>sometext</td>
<td>sometext</td>
</tr>
</table>

Frames

<frameset cols=”25%,75%”>
  <frame src=”page1.htm”>
  <frame src=”page2.htm”>
</frameset>

Forms

<form action=”http://www.example.com/test.asp” method=”post/get”>

<input type=”text” name=”lastname” value=”Nixon” size=”30″ maxlength=”50″>
<input type=”password”>
<input type=”checkbox” checked=”checked”>
<input type=”radio” checked=”checked”>
<input type=”submit”>
<input type=”reset”>
<input type=”hidden”>

<select>
<option>Apples
<option selected>Bananas
<option>Cherries
</select>

<textarea name=”Comment” rows=”60″ cols=”20″></textarea>

</form>

Entities

&lt; is the same as <
&gt; is the same as >
© is the same as ©

Other Elements

<!– This is a comment –>

<blockquote>
Text quoted from some source.
</blockquote>

<address>
Address 1<br>
Address 2<br>
City<br>
</address>

Source : http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_quick.asp

The list below is a complete list of the color names supported by all major browsers.

You can click on a color name (or a hex value) to view the color as the background-color along with different text colors.

Sorted by HEX Value

Link: Same list sorted by names

Note: The names above are not a part of the W3C web standard.

The W3C HTML and CSS standards have listed only 16 valid color names:
aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.

If you want valid HTML or CSS use the HEX values instead.

The list below is a complete list of the color names supported by all major browsers.

You can click on a color name (or a hex value) to view the color as the background-color along with different text colors.

Sorted by Names

Link: Same list sorted by values

Note: The names above are not a part of the W3C web standard.

The W3C HTML and CSS standards have listed only 16 valid color names:
aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.

If you want valid HTML or CSS use the HEX values instead.

Color Values

HTML colors are defined using a hexadecimal (hex) notation for the combination of Red, Green, and Blue color values (RGB).

The lowest value that can be given to one of the light sources is 0 (hex 00). The highest value is 255 (hex FF).

Hex values are written as 3 double digit numbers, starting with a # sign.

16 Million Different Colors

The combination of Red, Green and Blue values from 0 to 255 gives a total of more than 16 million different colors to play with (256 x 256 x 256).

Most modern monitors are capable of displaying at least 16384 different colors.

If you look at the color table below, you will see the result of varying the red light from 0 to 255, while keeping the green and blue light at zero.

To see a full list of color mixes when the red light varies from 0 to 255, click on one of the hex or rgb values below.

Shades of Gray

Gray colors are displayed using an equal amount of power to all of the light sources. To make it easier for you to select the right gray color we have compiled a table of gray shades for you:

Cross-Browser Color Names

A collection of nearly 150 color names are supported by all major browsers.

View the cross-browser color names

Web Standard Color Names

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has listed 16 valid color names for HTML and CSS:

aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.

If you want to use other colors, you should specify their HEX value.

Web Safe Colors?

Some years ago, when computers supported max 256 different colors, a list of 216 “Web Safe Colors” was suggested as a Web standard, reserving 40 fixed system colors.

The 216 cross-browser color palette was created to ensure that all computers would display the colors correctly when running a 256 color palette.

This is not important now, since most computers can display millions of different colors. Anyway here is the list:

Try-It-Yourself Examples

Text fields
This example demonstrates how to create text fields on an HTML page. A user can write text in a text field.

Password fields
This example demonstrates how to create a password field on an HTML page.

(You can find more examples at the bottom of this page)

Forms

A form is an area that can contain form elements.

Form elements are elements that allow the user to enter information (like text fields, textarea fields, drop-down menus, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc.) in a form.

A form is defined with the <form> tag.

Input

The most used form tag is the <input> tag. The type of input is specified with the type attribute. The most commonly used input types are explained below.

Text Fields

Text fields are used when you want the user to type letters, numbers, etc. in a form.

How it looks in a browser:

First name:
Last name: Note that the form itself is not visible. Also note that in most browsers, the width of the text field is 20 characters by default. 

Radio Buttons

Radio Buttons are used when you want the user to select one of a limited number of choices.

How it looks in a browser:

Male
Female Note that only one option can be chosen.

Checkboxes

Checkboxes are used when you want the user to select one or more options of a limited number of choices.

How it looks in a browser:

I have a bike:
I have a car:
I have an airplane:

The Form’s Action Attribute and the Submit Button

When the user clicks on the “Submit” button, the content of the form is sent to the server. The form’s action attribute defines the name of the file to send the content to. The file defined in the action attribute usually does something with the received input.

How it looks in a browser:

Username: If you type some characters in the text field above, and click the “Submit” button, the browser will send your input to a page called “html_form_submit.asp”. The page will show you the received input.

More Examples

Checkboxes
This example demonstrates how to create check-boxes on an HTML page. A user can select or unselect a checkbox.

Radio buttons
This example demonstrates how to create radio-buttons on an HTML page.

Simple drop down box
This example demonstrates how to create a simple drop-down box on an HTML page. A drop-down box is a selectable list.

Another drop down box
This example demonstrates how to create a simple drop-down box with a pre-selected value.

Textarea
This example demonstrates how to create a text-area (a multi-line text input control). A user can write text in the text-area. In a text-area you can write an unlimited number of characters.

Create a button
This example demonstrates how to create a button. On the button you can define your own text.

Fieldset around data
This example demonstrates how to draw a border with a caption around your data.

Form Examples

Form with input fields and a submit button
This example demonstrates how to add a form to a page. The form contains two input fields and a submit button.

Form with checkboxes
This form contains three checkboxes, and a submit button.

Form with radio buttons
This form contains two radio buttons, and a submit button.

Send e-mail from a form
This example demonstrates how to send e-mail from a form.

Form Tags

Try-It-Yourself Examples

Unordered list

Ordered list

(You can find more examples at the bottom of this page)

Unordered Lists

An unordered list is a list of items. The list items are marked with bullets (typically small black circles).

An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

Here is how it looks in a browser:

• Coffee
• Milk

Inside a list item you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.

Ordered Lists

An ordered list is also a list of items. The list items are marked with numbers.

An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

Here is how it looks in a browser:

1. Coffee
2. Milk

Inside a list item you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.

Definition Lists

A definition list is not a list of single items. It is a list of items (terms), with a description of each item (term).

A definition list starts with a <dl> tag (definition list).

Each term starts with a <dt> tag (definition term).

Each description starts with a <dd> tag (definition description).

Here is how it looks in a browser:

Coffee

Black hot drink

Milk

White cold drink

Inside the <dd> tag you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.

More Examples

Different types of ordered lists
Demonstrates different types of ordered lists.

Different types of unordered Lists
Demonstrates different types of unordered lists.

Nested list
Demonstrates how you can nest lists.

Nested list 2
Demonstrates a more complicated nested list.

Definition list
Demonstrates a definition list.

List Tags