- Add an appropriate
DOCTYPEtag to the top of an HTML file - Add opening and closing
htmltags - Add opening and closing
headandbodytags - Add
titletags
How do we keep all of our HTML in the right places? By making sure we build the structure correctly from the very first line. Let's construct an entire HTML document to practice putting the necessary elements where they belong.
Every HTML document requires a few specific tags that enable your browser to correctly interpret and display the content. A good way to think about this is that we need to build a solid structure for the content we want to put in our page, and each tag has a function in building that structure. If we forget a tag, our structure will weaken and the browser might not be able to display our page at all. So it's important we put every piece in its place at the beginning.
To get started, open index.html in your text editor.
The first step is always to add a DOCTYPE declaration at the top of the file
indicating to the browser how the HTML should be handled, and, in particular,
what
mode
of HTML the page should be in. In modern web development, we can simply put
html within the DOCTYPE declaration:
<!DOCTYPE html>Secondly, we need to define where the HTML content is on the page by creating
opening and closing html tags to enclose all of your page's HTML content.
Within the html tags, there are two main sections that are required: head
and body. The head section generally contains data intended for the web
browser, including information about the page that is useful to search engines.
The body section contains all the content our users will see and interact with
on the page.
The head section contains the title, which will show up at the top of a
browser window, typically in the tab. As the web developer, you get to decide
what the title will be — whatever text you type in between the title tags will
show up as the page title.
You can run the tests for this lab via learn. Make sure you save the file
before running this command. Failing tests will provide helpful error messages
that you can use to debug your code — read them closely for hints!
While working through these assignments, your general workflow should center on
writing code in the text editor and periodically running learn in the terminal
to check your work.
Another great way to track your progress is to open up the HTML document in your browser and watch how each change you make in the text editor affects the visual layout in the browser. For reference, here's a guide to viewing HTML pages in the Learn IDE.
Once you have the HTML document open in your browser, you can make changes to it in the text editor, save the file, refresh the page in the browser, and see the changes instantly.
We've figured out how to construct a solid structure for the HTML document. Now, as you pick up new HTML tags, you'll be able to add more elements to build out the rest of the page.