Introduction to Multimedia: The Internet & the Web

Basic HTML: A First Page

Background: Tags

HTML files use two types of tags:

"Container" tags contain data and may contain other tags. Examples include the paragraph tag (<p></p>), the list-item tag (<li></li>, and the various header tags. Notice the pattern: container tags have a start indicator (like <p>), followed by some contained content (or other tags), followed by a stop indicator (like </p>). The stop indicator always looks the same as the start indicator, with the addition of a slash (/).

"Standalone" tags do not contain other tags. Examples include the "horizontal rule" (<hr>), the break tag (<br/>), and the image tag (<img/>).

Setup Directory Structure

First you should set up the directories for a simple course web site, and then you will create one web page for that web site using HTML (version 4.01 "strict"). The resulting directories and files will be placed on the RIT student web server (gibson.rit.edu).

Make sure you have a directory named "www" directly under your login directory. Make sure you have another directory under "www" named "imm" (note: upper-case is different from lower-case, so make sure you spell these correctly). Make sure you have a directory under "imm" named "exercises", and another directory (also under "imm") named "stylesheets". Make sure that all these directories have rwx permissions for user, and r-x permissions for group and for other.

Your directory structure should now include the following:
    www
    imm
    exercises  stylesheets

Create File and Save to Server

Using BBEdit, create an empty HTML (version 4.01 "strict") document and save it to the "exercises" directory you created above, under the name "exercise01.html". Make sure it has the same permissions as above: "-rwxr-xr-x"

Add one or more headers to your document containing your name, the name of this class, and the instructor's name. Add two or more paragraphs to the document telling your audience something about yourself (what movies you like, what music you listen to, what hobbies you engage in, etc.). Add headers to better divide up this information into related "chunks".

Turn your name (see previous paragraph) into a "mailto" link. As an example, here is what the code to turn my name into a mailto link would look like:

<a href="mailto:jeffs@it.rit.edu">Jeff Sonstein</a>

Save your work to the server.

Test & Revise

Test your page against the W3C HTML validator, and revise until it validates as completely correct.

Grading Matrix

item points
create directories 10
set correct permissions for directories 10
create file with correct name in correct directory 10
file has correct permissions 10
file uses at least one header tag 10
file displays student name, class name, and instructor name 10
file contains at least two paragraphs about the student 10
information is broken up into chunks using header tags 10
student name is a working mailto: link 10
file validates against HTML version 4.01 strict standard 10
total 100

Due Date

By one minute before midnight on friday of week 2.

Valid HTML 4.01 Strict Valid CSS! Cynthia Tested!