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| Using Notepad as an HTML Editor |  |
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While being creative on a 'bare bones' system it is not easy on Notepad, it can be done. So how do you do it?
Close scrutiny of any web page display shows that it is comprised of text with or without images. It is the HTML commands which instruct the browser how to display the text and the images. Since all of the characters used for HTML commands are ASCII characters and available on the keyboard, any text editor or text processor, could be used as an authoring tool to create or edit HTML documents. You could use any text editing software. However, it isn't necessary to buy one because Microsoft provided a basic text editor, Notepad, with Windows based systems.
What is necessary, is an understanding of the HTML commands and how to use them. There are a myriad of books and websites offering help and tutorials on HTML, some of them are right here on PI. YOU must take it upon yourself to study the available information, reaching the best understanding you can. Then you will be ready to begin.
Open Notepad. When Notepad opens, it automatically sets up for you to begin a 'new' file. You are now ready to create an HTML document.
As you know any HTML document has two mandatory command sets, as well as two strongly recommended ones. The mandatory sets are <HTML></HTML> and <BODY></BODY>, while the recommended sets are <HEAD></HEAD> and <TITLE></TITLE>. <TITLE> lets you determine what the browser will show as the Title of you page, the TITLE set must be included within the <HEAD>, meaning Heading, set. So, let's set up a basic page format. Let's say we want the Title to be "Test Page," and only displaying the sentence "This HTML page was created with Notepad." Simply type in the characters, pressing the Enter key to complete line, just like my example below:
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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Test Page </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
This HTML page was created with Notepad.
</BODY>
</HTML> |
Save this file with a ".htm" extension, open it up in a browser, and it would display the single sentence, very near the top of the display using the browser's default background and text colors. It wouldn't be very impressive, but it would be a 'web page'. Expanding it into a creation is simply a matter of typing the desired text. Then typing in the correct HTML command sets to get a browser to display the text the way you want it; larger or smaller, bold or under-lined, blue or green. Adding an image is as easy as typing in the correct HTML code, such as; <IMG SRC='test.gif'> and putting it in the correct place among your text to get the display as you want it.
To save this as an HTML document named test.htm, you click on File in the upper-left corner of the Notepad toolbar, then click on Save As. The Save As window opens and lets you decide where to save the file (Save In:), what to name the file (File Name:) and what file extension to give the file (Save As Type). Be sure that Save As Type: is set to 'All Files', instead of 'Text Documents'. Choose the directory where you want to store the file, making sure that directory shows in 'Save In:'. Then enter your chosen name, in our example - test.htm, in to 'File Name:' The file will be saved when you click the 'Save' button.
I believe Notepad's advantage is how quick and easy it is to use, especially as an editor for existing documents. The disadvantage, compared to many HTML Editors, is that it has no wizards automatically inserting HTML code sets with a single icon click. A limiting factor is that Notepad can only hold documents of less than 34 kbytes.
So, if you already read the HTML tutorials and/or books and understand what the HTML code sets do, you might want to use Notepad for creating new HTML documents or for editing existing ones.
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