Delving into the next sphere of HyperTextMarkupLingo….!
With a set of improvised features and advanced style-kit, the world of HTML is no more the basic "standard" Markup Lingo for the Internet. We’ve worked quite a bit till now to get more accustomed with the features and styles of HTML, and to your relief now I’m here with a lesson without any work! Great, huh? Yes, it’s just one of those simple know-how lessons that'll not only help you decide the version of HTML that you should be using the next time, but it also gives you an “insight” to the coded segment of any web page!
Welcome to Lesson 19 – "Standard" and "Enhanced" HTML
If you remember precisely our discussion session in Lesson 1, it was the very first lesson wherein we unveiled the theory of "standard" HTML. And since then, with every consecutive lesson I've shown you ways and tutored the technique of employing assorted HTML tags, tags with browsers compatibility issues. So before venturing any further, let's do a quick review of the related issues.
During the dawn days of HTML i.e. round the year 1990, the World Wide Web was simply a mundane text-based structure, which carried itself by resting upon the shoulders of the HTML. It was during those days that almost all HTML tags and versions were developed as per the international standards (HTML 1.0), following the footsteps of which HTML information were completely autonomous i.e. there used to be no compatibility issues. And probably this is what has made the "web" a close-knit "world wide" informational forum. It was around 1993 when the first upgrade to the HTML basic version was done, and the mark-up lingo was updated to version 2.0. Gradually the web started growing popular... enormously popular.... massively popular! Following this upgrade, it was the introduction of some advanced features by Microsoft and Netscape, and once again it was led to the upgradation of the HTML standard, and this time it was – HTML 3.2. Gone are the days of HTML 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.2; presently it’s the most upgraded standard that is being used world-wide; a standard that is advanced and with this accolade comes in a complete new and a logical approach for web page formatting – HTML 4.0, the version that has made life for web authors easier when it comes to text formatting. Well-resourced with state-of-the-art features, it has been specifically designed to rule out all probable complications related to different web browsers.
The different HTML standards serve different purposes all revolving round the presentation of web pages. So what does it imply? When working as a web author, it is important for you to take a note of what your site viewers use the most for retrieving your web pages. And this is the very reason why it is not just enough to design and test your newly created web pages on one single browser. As professional web authors something that is expected off you is, when airing your web pages courtesy of an Internet server, you put in some special warning notes clearly expressing your concerns centering round the browser compatibility. And if you don’t feel that’s too good an idea to be used, then best to stick to the “basic” standards… standards that have no compatibility issues.
Finally an important piece of advice… never get obsessed with the page appearances on your own computer! You are not certainly creating and designing your web pages just for your own view and reference. Your readers are your prime concerns, and you have to take care of their concerns. Try testing your pages on different computers with different resolutions and different monitor sizes, and get yourself ready for the challenge!
Viewing the Source Codes of other web pages
Even if you've not yet mastered the art of writing the HTML codes, that' fine. Warm yourself up by peeking into the source codes of any and every page over the internet.
Now there are no exact menu paths for this; these are once again browser and version dependent. On a generic note, it can be done from the “View” menu item. Go to View, and from there you select Source or Page Source. Upon selection, it’ll retrieve the HTML source code for that particular page/ URL. And you can get a clear view!
There’s yet an alternative approach to this. From the “File” menu, you select “Save As”, and select the page source code in the local drive of your computer. It can be used as a later reference.
So the next time you come across a page and like the layout, go ahead and glance through the source codes. And don’t worry… this action is 100% legal!
Original Authors: Rajat
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 26/05/2009
