HTML Demystified plus 2 HTML Tags You Should Learn to Use

July 10, 2012 by 3 Comments
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Whether your blog is on Blogger, WordPress.com, or WordPress self-hosted, you should learn some basic HTML. At some point, you’re probably going to need to dig into the HTML view of your post. HTML. Does that scare you? Let me say it again. HTML. Don’t panic. It’s not as hard as you think. Allow me to break it down for you.

  • HTML code is written within brackets that look like this: < > Everything inside of those brackets gives directions on how to display the text to web browsing software.
  • In most cases HTML must have an opening tag and a closing tag. It looks like this: <tag> Text </tag>

Now that you understand the most basic parts of HTML, here are 2 HTML codes that you should learn how to work with and recognize.

  • HTML Link: <a href=”http://www.yourURL.com”>Your text</a>
    This HTML tag turns ordinary text into a clickable link. The URL that you want to open goes between the quote marks. The text that you want to be clicked on goes between the HTML tags.
  • HTML Image Link: <a href=”http://www.yourdomain.com><img src=”http://www.yourimage.jpg”></a>
    This HTML tag inserts the image of your choice into the page and makes it clickable to page you specify. As with the previous example, the URL that you want to open goes between the quote marks. The link to your image goes in the quotes of the image tag. Instead of text as in the previous example, the image is displayed.

I hope that demystifies HTML for you or at least begins to unravel the confusion. Want to learn more about HTML and CSS? My favorite resource is HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett. I love this book because it has beautiful images that illustrate the concepts of HTML and CSS rather than just spewing text at you.

Got questions about HTML? Leave them in the comments and we’ll tackle them together as a community.

Amanda Pelser is a former church communications director turned work-at-home(schooling) mom. She opens her home as an inspiring and encouraging shelter for the heart of moms through her stories of faith, motherhood, and homeschooling at ThePelsers.com. She is also the author of Finding Joy in Depression. Amanda spends her days chasing after and educating her two boys while running her virtual assistant and WordPress maintenance business.

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  • http://outsidetheboxhomeschooling.com Kirsten

    Thank you so much for this post and the resource. This is one area that I have convinced myself I need to buckle down and learn. I wasn’t quite sure where to go in order to learn it.

  • http://www.momsmustardseeds.com Rebecca

    Amanda, you are such a great source of inspiration!!! Thank you!

  • http://www.gentleshepherd.biz Diane Hurst

    Thanks for this basic info and book recommend, Amanda! At present I know just enough HTML to put in spaces and line breaks and different colored text; those are things I’ve needed to know. There are so many different codes it can seem like an insurmountable mountain, but I’m sure once you know what you’re doing and have some experience it looks much more simple. Showing just those two important codes is a helpful starting point.