Basic Web Page Formatting

Updated February 9, 1996

Formatting Codes

There are several codes available for specific actions:

Headers
Fonts such as bold, italics, etc.
Paragraphs and Line breaks
Preformatted Text
Indentation Lists

Unordered
Ordered
Directory
Definition

Lines (Horizontal Rule)

There are 6 possible Headers, H1 through H6. Apparently different Web browsers may treat them differently, but Mosaic doesn't make too much of a distinction except between H1 and H2. H1 is the biggest and H6 the smallest.

Changing font. For Bold , enclose the words between and . Use U for Underline and I for italics.

NOTE: Theoretically, the powers that be would prefer you use Logical styles such as for EMphasis (usually italics) and which is usually BOLDED.

I have not done that on most of the documents yet but will probably begin doing that style.

Paragraphs and Line Breaks. A Paragraph puts a blank line above the new information. To avoid a blank line, use the line BReak . Neither the nor the need a or . They work as standalone codes.

To get more lines, I use the Preformat codes <PRE> and </PRE>. Whatever is written between will appear exactly as it is written. I also use this for showing report outputs and file structures.

For Indentation, I've only figured out that Lists work. There should probably something better like embedded tabs. There are several types of lists, but I've only used Ordered, Unordered, Directory, and Definition so far. 6/8/95

list items

<UL> list items</UL>.

<DIR> list items</DIR>.

For each item in the list, you can preface it with a P (in angles) for Paragraph or with LI (in angles) for List Item (except for Definition Lists). If you only use and the optional , then you just get an indent for each item and either list looks the same. That's what I used to indent the above list. If you use <LI> for each item followed by the Optional </LI>, then you get bullets in front of each item on the unordered list and numbers in front of each item on the ordered list.

For example, here is an unordered list using LI codes:

<UL>

<LI> Item One
<LI> Item Two
<LI> Item Three

</UL>

Here is an ordered list using LI codes:

<OL>

<LI> Item One
<LI> Item Two
<LI> Item Three

</OL>

and here is a list with P codes instead of LI codes:

<UL>

Item Two

Item Three

</UL>

Directory Lists put the items in Big Bold letters with a bullet (like the unordered list).

Here is a directory list using LI codes:

<DIR>

<LI> Item One

<LI> Item Two

<LI> Item Three

</DIR>

Definition Lists provide a way of listing terms with each definition indented. A definition list begins with <DL> and ends with </DL>. Each Term is prefaced with a <DT> (for Definition Term) and each definition is <DD>. Below is part of a definition list I used in the SQL Tutorial:

GET filename: to load it into the editor
START filename: to run a macro

which is coded like this:

Lines

To draw a line across the screen, use Horizontal Rule <HR> to get something like this:

Mike Moxcey