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Basic HTML: Primer #3--Manipulating Text

Basic HTML: Primer #3
Manipulating Text

by Joe Burns, Ph.D.

...use these to jump around or read it all
[Heading Commands][Font Size Commands]
[Centering Text] [Text To The Right]

So, how did it go with your first HTML page last night? I'll assume it went well. Because if I don't, I can't go on, and I want to go on. So now you know the basics about placing flags and manipulating text in terms of bold, italic, and typewriter styles. That's good, and along with the <HR>, <BR> and <P> commands you'll be able to play around pretty well with text placement. Now we'll talk about changing text size.

Heading Commands

Heading commands are used extensively in HTML documents to, you guessed it, create headings! How novel.

There are six (6) heading commands: <H1> through <H6>. <H1> is the largest and <H6> is the smallest. Here are their relative sizes:

<H1>This is Heading 1</H1>

<H2>This is Heading 2</H2>

<H3>This is Heading 3</H3>

<H4>This is Heading 4</H4>

<H5>This is Heading 5</H5>

<H6>This is Heading 6</H6>

Note! In later version browsers (3.0 and above), the numbers seven and eight have been added, but in terms of size, there isn't a great deal of difference between then and #6 heading.

Heading commands create nice bold text, as shown above, and are quite easy to use. It's a simple H# and /H# command. However, they do have one annoying trait. They like to be alone.

When you use a heading command, by default, you set the text alone. It's like the heading commands carry a <P> command with them. You cannot get other text to sit right up against a heading. It's as if it wants to be, dare I say, a "Heading." Try a few for yourself.

Font Size Commands

Maybe you'd like a little more control over your text size. Well, here it is. The <FONT SIZE> commands. Heading commands are great for right at the top of the page, but these font commands are going to end up the work horses of your pages.

There are twelve (12) font size commands available to you:

+6 through +1 and -1 through -6

As you probably guessed, +6 is the largest. It's huge. Minus 6 is the smallest. It's a little too small. Here's a few of them in action. There's no need to show all of them. You'll get the idea of their relative sizes. Follow this pattern to place one on your page.

Notice that this the first command, <FONT SIZE="--"> is actually doing two things:

1. It's asking for a new font size...
2. and then offering a number to denote the font size.

This is what I like to call a command inside of a command. The technical HTML term is an "attribute". When you have that, you denote the attribute with an equal sign and enclose it within quotation marks. Look above. See the equal sign and the plus or minus number in quotes? That's what I'm talking about.

Also notice that the end command for a <FONT SIZE="--"> flag only requires </FONT>. I should tell you now that there are two other attributes you can use inside the FONT flag, COLOR and FACE. Those both have tutorial unto themselves. But even if you use all three inside a FONT flag, you still only need one </FONT>

Remember that an attribute is inside of a flag. When you use an end command, you are closing the flag, not the attribute. So you only need the one end flag like above.

Centering Text

Since you've already done some writing you no doubt noticed that the text appeared in the browser window justified to the left of the screen. That's what's known as the default. It just happens without your specifying any justification.

Notice that this text is centered on the page. It's done by surrounding the text you want centered with simple <CENTER> and </CENTER> commands.

Here's what it looks like: <CENTER>
All text in here will be centered

</CENTER>

Text To The Right

Can you get text to the right? Sure. It's done by setting the text aside as a paragraph unto itself. I'm going to use the <P> command you learned in Primer Two, but now I'm going to alter it. I'm going to add an attribute to it.

Here's the format:

<P ALIGN="right">Text in here is pushed to the right</P>

See how I added the ALIGN="right" attribute to the <P> command? OK, but you also have to remember that if you add an attribute to a single flag like the <P> flag, or the <BR> flag (yes, there are attributes for BR), then you'll need to use an end flag. See the </P> up there?

If you're just using <P> to create a new paragraph, then it can sit all by it's lonesome. But the moment you add an attribute=, you need to use the end flag.

And Primer #3 comes to an end. Notice they're getting shorter? Now go and incorporate a few of these Heading, FONT SIZE, and CENTER commands into a page. To do is to learn. A brilliant man once said that...I think he had a beard too.

On to Primer #4

Back to the HTML Goodies Home Page

[Heading Commands][Font Size Commands]
[Centering Text] [Text To The Right]

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Basic HTML: Primer #3Manipulating Text