1) An explanation of how HTML works which will enable you to quickly
understand how to use the other portions of the tutorial
2) HTML tags and attributes with examples - read the explanation so
you'll know what to do with this. This section also includes some tips.
I have also incorporated the many of the tips into the sample files.
3) Sample files: click on the link to open the sample file and save
it to your computer. If you prefer, you can copy and paste these files
into Notepad, Wordpad, or other text editor, save them with an htm or
html extension, and open them with your browser. This will provide you
with working examples of all the tags and attributes so that you don't
have to copy the entire tutorial, and it will let you see an actual
example instead of the typical ??????format thing?????where you don't
know which items you type and which are placeholders for something else.
4) A generic image file to use with the sample script (since the sample
script includes references to image files).
5) Links to useful information that will help you with various aspects
of writing HTML. Also links to other tutorials.
About you: If you are reading this you are either
1) one of my friends or a member of my family
2) someone who is fairly optimistic (enough to check out the site after
reading the title) and a little impatient, and who wants to jump right
in and start reading/writing HTML or
3) someone who saw this link and was skeptical about learning HTML in
30 minutes.
Why I think this is a good way to learn HTML:
HTML is not that hard. The way I learned HTML is by looking at existing HTML files, trying to make sense of them, trying to edit them to change simple things. It was only after I already had some idea of how it works that I worked through a book on HTML. I like learning things this way because tinkering with real things is more fun than going through a book. Once I learned a little, then going through the book was easier because I could move quickly through the things I already knew, and could recognize tips that would explain the problems I had already puzzled over.
Caveat: I have learned HTML using an older book (cheap!) and there may be some new tags I haven't picked up yet. As I find out about them I will add them to this tutorial. However, you can do a lot with what's here, particularly if you add a little Javascript.
OK, ready to start? Click here to continue.
Next: HTML Lesson 1: The Bottom Line