The George Washington University
School of Engineering and Applied Science
CSci 41 -- Introduction to Computer Science
Fall 2001

Lab Exercise 4, Sep. 20-21, 2001 -- Teach Yourself HTML!

This file is available online at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~41/fall01/41f01lab3.html

The purpose of this lab is to explore the basics of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In lecture we discussed how CS is, in part, the study of the transformation of information, using HTML as an example. Here you will explore the transformations applied to a web page as it goes from Here's what to do:
  1. Start a blank page in Composer. Save it on your PC as my_html_manual.html. Write a centered title at the top of  this page, then publish it to your website. You now have the basis for writing a personal guide to HTML. Leave this Composer window open so you can enter lines in it as appropriate.
  2. Now open a Netscape browser window with this file (that is, this lab assignment). Now go to the Edit menu and select Preferences. Now select Fonts. Change the fonts and sizes around and observe the effect on the display.
  3. With the Netscape window still open, start Microsoft Internet Explorer and repeat Step 2. What differences do you observe in the font/size setting process and how this affects the way the page is rendered?
  4. Now quit Explorer and just work with Netscape. Select the window that contains this lab assignment, then go to the View menu and select Page Source. Another window will open, containing the HTML for the page.
  5. Now go back and forth between the HTML window and the display window. Try to teach yourself the association between the two. In your personal HTML manual window, make a list of as many of the HTML tags as you can, along with your understanding of what each tag does.
  6. Finally, browse to your personal home page (from Lab 1). View the source. Since you know exactly what you wrote in that page, you are in a position to see how your own input to Composer was transformed into HTML, and how Netscape displays it back in the browser.
  7. Be sure to publish your personal HTML manual on your website! Now you can refer to it from any Internet-connected computer in the world!

HAVE FUN WITH THIS!