Learn HTML Part 1
Today, your blogging programs can be just as fancy as any basic Text Editing software on the market. Yet, the blogging platforms are translating your input into HTML so there will always be quirky behavior or translation problems. It is a “best blogging practice” to understand the roots of HTML and at least know how to recognize and edit the common tags. It is easier than you think and it will give you that extra “pizazz” that might set your blog apart from the rest.
What is HTML?
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, it is the predominant language of the web. It is how we talk to the web browsers. I would simply type in <h2>Love You!</h2> and web browser knows to make Love You! a heading 2.
Tags
A tag is a keyword used in HTML that is surrounded by angle brackets. A keyword is an action that the browser is aware of. Some browsers, depending on age and complexity are not aware of some actions, which leads to your web site looking different from one browser to another. This rarely happens when using basic HTML these days, but will happen when using more advanced web languages like CSS3. (There are many different web languages that are used in web design/development, some are very advanced, others are quite simple, they usually all work hand in hand. HTML is the basic foundation, the under garments so-to-speak of web languages).
A tag looks like this:
<HTML>
Tags normal come in pairs, there is an opener and a closer.
<HTML> = The Start Tag
</HTML> = The End Tag
The HTML tag is telling your browser to expect HTML coding. You will not see this in your blogging post, but you will see it if you take a look at the formatting inside your template.
Formatting
To make matters complicated, there are some double tags when it comes to formatting. I’ll list both and one is no better than the other. There are some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts that say using one tag is better than the other, but there is really no definitive proof of this.
Bold = <b> YOUR TEXT </b>
or
<strong> YOUR TEXT </strong>
Italics = <i> YOUR TEXT </i>
or
<em> YOUR TEXT </em>
Underline = <u> YOUR TEXT </u>
Strike Through = <strike> YOUR TEXT </strike>
or <del> YOUR TEXT </del>
Center = <center> YOUR TEXT </center>
Left = <left> YOUR TEXT </left>
Right = <right> YOUR TEXT </right>
Blockquote = <blockquote> YOUR TEXT </blockquote>
This one might not work depending on how your CSS is styled in your template. It will indent the paragraph though.
Typewriter Text = <tt> YOUR TEXT </tt>
Subscript = <sub> YOUR TEXT </sub>
Superscript = <sup> YOUR TEXT </sup>
BIG Text = <big> YOUR TEXT </big>
Computer Output = <code> YOUR TEXT </code>
I think that is enough for today. If you are like me, before you really “get” coding it just makes your head hurt. But, the key is the simplicity of the basic truth behind the code. Once you understand the basics it is so easy to Google how to do this, how to do that…and coding will unfold before you. The internet is a wealth of knowledge. It is how I taught myself CSS, PHP…and I’m slowly working on javascript. You got this…
Feeling Good. Move on to Part II
Reader Question of the Week:
I’m still not sure what the etiquette for sharing ARC’s is yet…” - Blogger
Thank you to the lovely Lizzy from @ReadAholicZ , I think we have discovered the blog you refer to:
Look, what these girls are doing is innocent. And I believe that it would be up to the publishers to decide whether they are “right” or “wrong”. The program encourages reviews from the ARCs that are traded. Which supposedly balances out the fact that bloggers that wouldn’t necessarily be getting these ARCs are getting them through non-commissioned means.
If you follow guidelines implemented by some publishers, what they are doing, is wrong. You are not supposed to pass on your ARCs. In fact I have been asked by some of my distributors to DESTROY my ARCs. Paperback ARCs. I guess I would have to burn them when I want to pull them from my shelves. I haven’t worked up the nerve for this yet. They sit on my shelf, even though I could easily host a giveaway of a Box Full of ARCs. I don’t though. The only ARCs I giveaway are those sponsored by the publisher. Which is sooo rare, I think it was like six months ago.
Is this crazy? Over the top? No, ARCs are marketing promotional material. The publishers use them as perks and sometimes are very restrictive on how they are distributed. The ARCs can sometimes be unfinished. Libraries can not accept ARCs to put on their shelves, because technically they are not officially books. (They can distribute them to their patrons though from what I hear. The point of librarians getting ARCs is so they read it and then order the finished copy to put on their shelves, yet a lot of libraries are low on funding so they’ll distribute the ARC “under the table” to voracious teen readers etc) The publishers aren’t offering these to Bloggers, Librarians and Book sellers just because they are cool and want to be full of awesome. They offer these ARCs to SELL THEIR BOOK. That is the main goal. Period. Nothing more.
Some publishers are okay with passing on the books, they want you to host ARC tours, they want them to be distributed. One ARC = 5 reviews. Heck yeah! But, some publishers are not. They don’t want that ARC distributed, they want it to go to the person they chose to send it to and that is it.
There is not a definitive, right or wrong is this situation. My suggestion would be to the bloggers donating their ARCs, if you get these ARCs from a contact, ask them first if it is okay to pass them on. Most of the time all my ARCs come from certain contacts within the publishing houses. Send that contact an email asking how to handle the ARCs. I bet you they have an answer and it might surprise you. This is who these girls need to be asking…
Book Blogging News:
The New Year is upon us and I’ve been away from my reader channels. Besides that metaphorical Fiscal Cliff…which we seem to have avoided, that is about all I’ve digested besides an atrocious amount of champagne.
Hot news for me…well a few of my cover designs were named in Best Covers of 2012, which I’m thankful for…and overjoyed because they went up against some amazing Big House generated designs. Go me, right?
Fun things. The chicks at the Cuddlebuggery did this crazy petition where they demanded seconds to books they loved. It cracked me up. Check it out.
Word on the street is that THE VAMPIRE ACADEMY series is making it to the big screen. ……PAUSE…… Freak out. Yes! One of my favorite Young Adult Vampire Awesome Series is going to be put on a big freaking screen with the guy that did HEATHERS (yeah think way back…waaaay back…Christian Slater, the chick that was caught shoplifting and tried to sue Primus…) is writing the script. They just picked up their director and are that much closer to casting. The guy playing Dmitri has a LOT to live up to. I can’t see how the movie can even touch the books…but we’ll see right?
Happy Thursday. Talk Less. Read More. Blog with Integrity.
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I’ve slowly been picking up html as well. I keep a notepad file of useful code so I can just cut and paste when I need it.
That is a great idea Donna. Even though I could technically code by hand, the job can get tedious. So I use what is called a WYSIWYG program. Which I can code and place in then I copy and paste it into WordPress. There are some issues. WP along with Blogger translates spaces oddly. You never know if you’ll get a paragraph or break tag…where as my WYSIWYG is quite literal.
You’ve been asked to destroy your books!? I’ve never had anybody ask me to destroy an ARC when I’m done with them and I have plenty of copies. (My extras go to schools to share with kids once the books are in print for in-library use.)
The Amazon Vine program ask you to dispose of your review products and books after you are finished with them. They are not to be given to anyone. It is drastic, but that is in their TOS
But thats Amazon and not the publisher directly, which, is misleading information. I’ve spoken with my own contacts and they advocate the sharing of ARCs. I pass my ARCS on most often because I’m buying the finished copy.
The reason why you would use strong over b, or em instead of i is less for SEO and more for screen-readers and accessibility reasons. With strong and em, (many) screen readers will actually emphasize the text inside of those tags instead of just treating them like regular text that is styled differently for design purposes. Most WYSIWYG editors will default to using strong and em though.
I’m so terrible about forgetting accessibility. I make sure I use hierarchy, but my focus on emphasis is mainly for visualization and not accessibility. I have to do a better job of putting both together.
I heart your face. That is all…
Dude, Cuddlebuggery seriously ROCKS right? It’s ridiculous.
Between HTML and CSS – I feel like my head will explode half the time. My brain doesn’t have the capacity to hold so much information. Einstein would be appalled!
You need to learn it chick. You could take over the world much easier.
This is a fantastic post. I don’t know much HTML, but I have been trying to learn. I do google specific things, but I love when other bloggers make posts and break it down. It makes it much easier to understand.
Thanks Amy. I hope it was easy to understand. I find that sometimes what seems easy to me doesn’t make sense to others and vice versa. I’ve read some tutorials that all the comments are like AWESOME — so easy — and I’m like — ummmmm did I miss something lol.
Occasionally when I get an ARC in the mail the pub letter that comes with it asks me not to share the ARC after I read it, but more often the letter states that sharing of the ARC is okay (or it doesn’t say anything about that topic at all).
The Amazon Vine program has always been SUPER strict about their review stuff, just look at how difficult it is to even join the program…they have to invite you! But still, destroying a product after reviewing it is kind of silly and I’m glad I’m not a member of that program.
You are right! I should have mentioned that. Some do, some don’t. Vine is super strict, but I’ve moved away from books to more products. Most of the books they have on there I’m not interested in or I already have. I do luck out sometimes and get a hot ARC that isn’t in blogger circulation. But that is super rare. It is a good program though. I’ve gotten a pressure cooker, awesome headphones…those sort of things.
You rock for the HTML help! You spelled it out easier than any other site that I’ve check out lately while looking for help!!
Thank you so much!
I love these blog posts, they are incredible helpful! I wish you would do one as well for blog design..I am so curious about the process of designing…I like art and computer based art but I haven’t used any software but photoshop elements! I do a lot of you tube tutorials but I would love read some design tips!
Thanks chick!! You have to experiment. If you want to try something different go with a vector program like Illustrator. Or Corel. You might find those fun to do also.
That is exactly what I was wanting to ask you! Do you draw with tablet or do you sketch and then scan into the program? Is one way easier than the other? Your designs always look so clean and well composed!
HTML is one of the issues that I’m realizing that I need to learn. Me so bad. I even got an HTML book for dummies. Seriously that is one of the reason why I don’t want to move to WP, plus for people with very little HTML knowledge WP can be confusing. I’m realizing that I’m starting to use it more and more.
Oh I can’t wait for part two. Sadly I know enough about HTML to get myself in trouble but not enough to do anything good
When I first started out my site used to only allow the em and strong tags versus b and i and when I’d search Google for info I never understood why the code help I found wouldn’t work. But that was an older version of WP and a more newb version of me.
I save code in text editors as I used to run into the problem with quote marks becoming “smart” and then not getting why my grab codes never worked.
And I still wish Blogger and WP would have the same codes. So frustrating.
Can’t wait until your tutorials on CSS!
And I did NOT know about the VA movies. I hope they cast Rose and Dimi well. Oh and Adrian. Fingers crossed. <3 that series big time.
I love HTML and CSS. I started learning when I was 12 and haven’t stopped since
it’s always changing and updating so it’s not something you can give up on!
Html has become my very own archenemy. I can’t tell you how excited I am that you are breaking it down in terms that won’t make me chuck my computer across the room. Hats off to you ma’am.
(ahh I did it…I think)
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Rachel, this is really great read. I first picked up a book on HTML 12 years ago and totally forgot some of the flags that you mentioned here, basic html at that. Could you suggest some good books on learning more about it? Really need a refresher. Thanks again for the useful info!