In this post, I’d like to share my first experience using HTML. HTML is a markup language that tells the browser how to display web content. When using a platform like wordpress, which I am currently using to create this blog, there is little need to be familiar with HTML. However, when designing a website from scratch, HTML is the primary tool used.
First, let’s talk about the code. There are different commands called elements within the code that provide instructions for when, where, and how to display content. An image of the code used to recreate my “about me” page using HTML is provided below. In this image, you can see elements for headings (h1), paragraphs (p), and titles (title) among others. These commands are enclosed within brackets: <>, signifying a set of instructions for how to output the content. The very beginning and very end of the script contain the elements <!DOCTYPE html> and </html> respectively. These elements give the instruction that this script is written in HTML and should be treated as such. Toward the end of the script, there is an element specifying where to source the image from, and what size to make it.
To write this script, I copied a basic outline and inserted my own content into the code. When testing it for the first time in a browser, the image did not display and the page contained an unfamiliar symbol where the image should have been. After attempting to troubleshoot with the existing code for a bit, I obtained the base code from elsewhere and started over. Though the new code appeared the same as the original source code, it seemed to work without issues. There must have been a minor error in the first code used that I was unable to perceive. One other issue that I had to work around was that the two apostrophes I had used in the text in order to create conjunctions turned into a symbol instead of outputting as apostrophes. I could not determine why this was occurring so decided to remove the conjunctions all together.
Once I knew the page was displaying as intended in the browser, I uploaded the file to MyWebSpace via FileZilla. FileZilla is an FTP (file transfer protocol) application that allows one to transfer files from a local source to a server located elsewhere. The final page as it appears on MyWebSpace looks like this:
As you can see, this page is fairly basic. It displays a title, single block of text, and image without any additional formatting. Though the formatting can be accomplished via tweaking of the HTML script, aesthetic elements that are a bit more involved require the use of CSS. CSS is a language that works alongside HTML and allows the user to enhance the presentation of the page as it appears in a browser.
Overall, I enjoyed my first time using HTML, and would like to learn more about its application in the future. It is evident that although HTML may be tedious at times, it allows for a great deal of freedom and creativity if one is well-versed in its use.
Bread & Bones 
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