HTML 4.01: Web Authoring Level 1 (Multi-platform)

Course specifications

Course number: 077 909

Software version number: 4.0

Course length: 1 day

Hardware/software required to run this course

• Windows 95, 98, or NT installed on a PC, or Mac O/S 8.0 (or higher) installed on a Macintosh according to software documentation.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 (PC) or 4.5 (Mac), and Netscape Communicator 4.7 installed. Note: Other versions (newer or older) of these browsers can be used, but may affect the outcome of some tasks. There will also be inconsistencies with the graphics in the book and what students see on their screens.
• A connection to the Internet.
• A monitor set to 800 x 600 resolution and a minimum of 256 colors (16-bit color preferred)

See your reference manual for hardware considerations that apply to your specific hardware setup.

Course description

Overview: Students will learn about how to create Web documents using HMTL 4.01.

Prerequisites: A student who is not familiar with computers or the Internet will benefit by taking one or more of the following Element K Press courses before proceeding with this course:

• Introduction to Personal Computers Using Windows 98 or Mac O/S 9.0: Introduction
• Netscape Communicator 4.7: Introduction or Internet Explorer 5.0: Introduction

Delivery method: Instructor-led, group-paced, classroom-delivery learning model with structured hands-on activities.

Benefits: Students will learn how to use good HTML coding practices to create Web pages that work, and will continue to work in the ever-changing world of Web development. Many courses teach students how to create Web documents that work in class, but don’t consider the direction that Web authoring is going. In HTML 4.01: Web Authoring Level 1, students learn concepts and do tasks that foster the transition from HTML to the most recent XML-based Web authoring language recommendation, XHTML 1.0, which will become the future standard. The theory behind this is to learn HTML this way now, so that there will be a minimal learning curve when the time comes to transition to XHTML. The students will also have the benefit of being introduced to the power and control of Cascading Style Sheets, which is a complementary technology to HTML that is changing the face of Web authoring.

Target student: Students enrolling in this course should possess fundamental knowledge of personal computing and Internet technology.

What's next: HTML 4.01: Web Authoring Level 1 is the first course in this series. HTML 4.01 Web Authoring Level 2 (Multi-platform), the next course in this series, teaches student how to work with forms, use tables for layout, and use frames. It will also use Cascading Style Sheets and introduce the use of scripts to add interactivity to a Web page. Students who want to learn advanced features can take HTML 4.01 Web Authoring Level 2.

Performance-based objectives

Lesson objectives help students become comfortable with the course, and also provide a means to evaluate learning. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand what HTML is, how it is used, and how it came to be.
• Use a text editor to set up both global and content structures of an HTML
• document.
• Create links to locations within a site and out to other sites on the Internet.
• Efficiently format Web page content by using both non-deprecated HTML tags and
• Cascading Style Sheets.
• Incorporate graphics into Web pages as embedded images, links, and backgrounds.
• Generate unordered, ordered, and nested lists in HTML documents.
• Build and format tables for presenting data.

Course content

Lesson 1: HTML 4.0

• The Basics
• Web Browsers
• What is HTML?
• HTML as a Markup Language
• What Does HTML Look Like?
• Nesting Tags

Lesson 2: HTML Structure

• Global Structure
• The HTML, BODY, HEAD, TITLE Elements
• Creating an HTML Document
• Basic Content Structure
• Headings
• Paragraphs
• Horizontal Rules
• Divisions
• Line Breaks

Lesson 3: Links

• Local Links and Navigation Bars
• Remote Links
• E-mail Links
• Named Anchors (Bookmarks)

Lesson 4: Formatting

• Block-level Formatting
• Inline Formatting
• HTML Entities
• Using Colors
• Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets
• Embedded Styles
• Inline Styles

Lesson 5: Graphics

• Embedding Images in a Web Page
• The "alt" Attribute and Accessibility
• Graphic Formats (GIF, JPEG, and PNG)
• Using Graphics as Links
• Using Background Images

Lesson 6: Lists

• Creating Unordered (Bulleted) Lists
• Creating Ordered (Numbered) Lists
• Nesting Lists

Lesson 7: Tables

• Creating and Modifying Tables
• Table Coding Guidelines
• Working Around Browser Inconsistencies
• Formatting Tables
• Table Headers and Captions
• Spanning Rows and Columns

Additional information:

This book:

• Has been written for and tested on both PCs and Macs and contains a separate set of data files for each platform.
• Contains staged data files that allow students and instructors to easily skip a task or lab. Students can also use these partially completed files as references if they have difficulty with a task or lab.
• Addresses browser inconsistencies and how to work around these issues.
• Was written to teach HTML basics while preparing students for a smooth transition to XML-based XHTML 1.0, which will be the next Web authoring standard.
• Contains an introduction to Cascading Style Sheets—a powerful complementary Web design tool that requires no additional hardware or software.
• Focuses on reliable and forward-thinking practices of Web page design, including the use of Cascading Style Sheets. Thus, the use of deprecated elements (those considered obsolete by the World Wide Web Consortium) is discouraged; when used in this course, deprecated elements are noted as such.