At times you will want to create a document in an outline format with large bold headers and bullet points. For instance:

There are several tags which can help you arrange your page and format text. A complete list is in the appendix, but these in particular are provided as useful examples of how tags format your text.

First create another HTML page or open an existing one from the previous lessons. Now you can type some text proceeding it with <h1> and followed by </h1>. For instance <h1> My Shopping List </h1>. The header tag not only makes text bold, but can alter its size depending upon the number. In example <h2> is slightly smaller than <h1>. <h3> is even smaller. See the demostration of various header tags in the following text:

header (<h1>)
header (<h2>)
header (<h3>)
header 4 (<h4>)
header 5 (<h5>)
So the header tag is a quick and easy way to not only resize text, but give it the bold effect need for titles, subtitles and outlines. Of course you could get the same effect by combining <b> and <font> tags as described in lesson 3.

To create a bulleted list, simply use the <li> tag, then followed by the text you need, and then followed by </li> to end the command. See the following example:

<li>mangoes</li>
<li>apples</li>
<li>limes</li>

which produces:

mangoes
apples
limes
The indention, as provided in the list at the beginning of this lesson, was produced using the tag <ul> which is also ended with </ul>. Using multiple <ul> within each other will produce double indentations. For instance:

mangoes
apples
limes
was produced from:

<ul>
<li>
mangoes
</li>
<ul>
<li>
apples
</li>
<ul>
<li>
limes
</li>
</ul></ul></ul>

It is worth noting again that text is only formatted by the tags used in HTML to position, change color, or size. HTML does not need to be written on seperate lines. In fact stringing it together as one long "sentence" will not produce an effect in the way information is displayed. Rather, placing each command and text on a separate line, or grouped by function, simply makes your HTML easier for yourself and others to read and edit.

Many of the other text tags/commands listed in the appendix work exactly the same way to produce a variety of effects. For instance bolding text, italics, underline, etc. A good way to become familiar with the various tags is to select a document which has a variety of text and fonts used and to mimic its look in HTML by using a variety of tags. Simply practicing them will of course improve you ability to write HTML in a comfortable, quick manner.

Next>> Cascading Style Sheets