E2 HTML tags : Chapter 1

All parts of this HTML guide for Everything 2 include:
(all chapters)   |   Overview/Contents/Index   |   Tags and Starting New Lines   |   Character Formatting   |   Special Characters   |   Lists   |   Giving Credit Where Credit is Due   |   Miscellaneous Tags   |   EOF: Index and Information   |   (Quick Start)

1: Tags and Starting New Lines

1.1: Tags/HTML Overview

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. A markup language in general means that is consists of plain text but also have certain character sequences that denote something special. In this case, HTML, almost all "fancy" things (like formatting) are done by using "tags". Plain HTML tags are generally in the form:

          <tag_name> normal text to format </tag_name>

This is how "markup" comes into play: the text "normal text to format" is typed just as it appears; the tags that surround that text (the <tag_name> and </tag_name>, in this case, tell the web browser how it should appear.

While this guide will help you with your HTML, E2's writeup hints will also warn you about some errors in your HTML. Visit your user settings and make sure the "Show critical writeup hints" and "Show HTML hints" options are checked (they are by default), and check "Show strict HTML hints" (which is not checked by default). Then press the submit button.

Most of this guide is dedicated to showing how to use tags that format text. However, the thing most people want to be able to do at first is be able to separate their text into paragraphs. Lucky for them, that is explained next...

1.2: Starting New Lines

The first thing you probably want to do is separate your lines a bit. Because of the way HTML works, just hitting Enter won't start a new line. Instead, you have to use some tags that don't really format text, but say how the text should flow. To just start on a new line,
like this, just insert <br /> where you want the line to break. (In other words, put one at the end of each line.) That tag is useful for things like poems, where you want each line to be short.

1.3: Paragraphs

For longer sections of text, though, like paragraphs, using the paragraph tag is better. Simply put <p> before each paragraph, and </p> after each paragraph. For example, if this is typed:

	<p>
	The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
	It jumped very quickly and swiftly in order
	to reach the proper velocity it needed to
	clear the dog.
	</p>
	<p>
	"Why did it jump?", she asked.
	"It would have been easier on the fox to
	just construct a ramp, put on roller skates,
	and skate over the dog."
	</p>
	<p>
	A perplexed boy answered, "Didn't you know?
	The fox lost its roller skates."
	</p>

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. It jumped very quickly and swiftly in order to reach the proper velocity it needed to clear the dog.

"Why did it jump?", she asked. "It would have been easier on the fox to just construct a ramp, put on roller skates, and skate over the dog."

A perplexed boy answered, "Didn't you know? The fox lost its roller skates."

1.3.1: Paragraph Alignment

You may have seen some nodes that play with the text alignment, like this:

This sentence is on the right.

This sentence is centered.

This sentence is back on the left.

You may find this useful when noding poetry, ...

... or if you just want to give the reader ...

... a headache (in that case, shame on you).

To do the alignment, we use the same <p> tags previously mentioned, but we give more information in the tag. Most HTML tags can have several items of addition information, called attributes, but E2 filters most of them out. One of the attributes allowed is the align attribute of the paragraph tag. We may align the paragraphs using <p align="x">, where x is left, center, right, or justify.

This paragraph starts with <p align="left">. As you can tell, it is easier to just make the opening tag a plain <p>, since this is assumed by default.

This has <p align="center"> as the paragraph tag.

This right-justified line[s] begins with <p align="right">.

This paragraph opens with <p align="justify">. Some browsers are able to display justified paragraph alignment, which means that the left and right sides of the text are lined up. Fancy stuff. Browsers that do not understand "justify" in the align attribute simply default to normal alignment, which is straight on the left, and jagged on the right. Of course, having justified paragraphs usually looks cooler if each paragraph is of a decent length, unlike this one, which is a tad on the short side.

Ok,         no         more         messing

around         with         the

paragraph         alignment.

Using the align attribute is another feature popular with the poets. Ok, no more mention of poetry. This is a computer lesson, not a human language lesson.

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