HTML Cheatsheet

Basic Tags

These basic tags are used to communicate to the browser to allow it to know that it is a HTML document and how to render and arrange the content. The <head></head> tag sets the title, metadata and links any external documents to your HTML document. The meta data is essential in assisting search engines to crawl your site and index your content efficiently. The <body></body> tags is where all content that you wish to be displayed within the browser windows is placed. This is the main area of your document where you will spend a large portion of your time.

<html></html> Creates an HTML document
<head></head> Sets off the title and other information that isn’t displayed on the web page itself
<body></body> Sets off the visible portion of the document

Body Attributes

These attributes allow you to manipulate the way in which your document is laid out and displayed. Whilst these tags are perfectly fine for HTML syntax it is preferable that if you wish to manipulate any tags that you use external stylesheets to ensure consistency across all pages using the same overlaying template.

<body bgcolor="pink"> Sets the background color, using name or hex value
<body text="black"> Sets the text color, using name or hex value
<body link="blue"> Sets the color of links, using name or hex value
<body vlink="#ff0000"> Sets the color of followed links, using name or hex value
<body alink="#00ff00"> Sets the color of links on click
<body ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> Disallows text selection with the mouse and keyboard

Text Tags

These text tags are also known as content tags. There are the main tags which will be used when you are entering and writing content within your website. All website content should be easily scannable to ensure that users are able to get the information they need quickly. If they are unable to get what they want in a short amount of time then they will look else where (proberly not on your site).

<pre></pre> Creates preformatted text
<hl></hl> Creates the largest headline
<h6></h6> Creates the smallest headline
<b></b> Creates bold text
<i></i> Creates italic text
<tt></tt> Creates teletype, or typewriter-style text
<cite></cite> Creates a citation, usually italic
<em></em> Emphasizes a word (with italic or bold)
<strong></strong> Emphasizes a word (with italic or bold)
<font size="3"></font> Sets size of font, from 1 to 7
<font color="green"></font> Sets font color, using name or hex value
<p></p> Creates a new paragraph

Links

Links and Hyperlinks are what make the Internet what it is today. The internet is a network of computers which allow you to view billions of website pages. Hyperlinks are what allow sites to link internally and also to external pages and reference websites.

<a href="URL"></a> Creates a hyperlink
<a href="mailto:EMAIL"></a> Creates a mailto link
<a href="URL"><img src="URL"> </a> Creates an image/link
<a name="NAME"></a> Creates a target location within a document
<a href="#NAME"></a> Links to that target location from elsewhere in the document

Formatting

Similar to the Body Attributes these are perfectly acceptable syntax for HTML however it preferable that you use external CSS to format and manipulate the content within your website. This will ensure that the colour of all your hyperlinks, paragraphs and headers are the same across all pages within your website.

<p align="left"> Aligns a paragraph to the left (default), right, or center.
<br> Inserts a line break
<blockquote></blockquote> Indents text from both sides
<dl></dl> Creates a definition list
<dt> Precedes each definition term
<dd> Precedes each definition
<ol></ol> Creates a numbered list
<ul></ul> Creates a bulleted list
<li></li> Precedes each list item, and adds a number or symbol depending upon the type of list selected
<div align="left"> A generic tag used to format large blocks of HTML, also used for stylesheets
<img src="name"> Adds an image
<img src="name" align="left"> Aligns an image: left, right, center; bottom, top, middle
<img src="name" border="1"> Sets size of border around an image
<hr /> Inserts a horizontal rule
<hr size="3" /> Sets size (height) of rule
<hr width="80%" /> Sets width of rule, in percentage or absolute value
<hr noshade /> Creates a rule without a shadow

Tables

Tables are often used by web developers to create the general layout of the site. This should not be done in any instance. Tables should only be used when you are displaying tabluar data which would be regularly displayed in table format. If you wish to create a structured page layout you should be using <div></div> tags and CSS.

<table></table> Creates a table
<tr></tr> Sets off each row in a table
<td></td> Sets off each cell in a row
<th></th> Sets off the table header (a normal cell with bold, centered text)

Table Attributes

These attributes allow you to manipulate the way in which your table displays; how many columns, rows and the width of the table. If you wish for all of your tables to look the same you can set the styles in your external style sheet.

<table border="1"> Sets width of border around table cells
<table cellspacing="1"> Sets amount of space between table cells
<table cellpadding="1"> Sets amount of space between a cell’s border and its contents
<table width="500" or
"80%">		 Sets width of table, in pixels or as a percentage of document width
<tr align="left"> or
<td align="left">		 Sets alignment for cell(s) (left, center, or right)
<tr valign="top"> or
<td valign="top">		 Sets vertical alignment for cell(s) (top, middle, or bottom)
<td colspan="2"> Sets number of columns a cell should span (default=1)
<td rowspan="4"> Sets number of rows a cell should span (default=1)
<td nowrap> Prevents the lines within a cell from being broken to fit

Form

For functional forms, you’ll have to run a script. The HTML just creates the appearance of a form.

<form></form> Creates all forms
<select multiple name="NAME" size=?></select> Creates a scrolling menu. Size sets the number of menu items visible before you need to scroll.
<option> Sets off each menu item
<select name="NAME"></select> Creates a pulldown menu
<option> Sets off each menu item
<textarea name="NAME" cols=40 rows=8></textarea name> Creates a text box area. Columns set the width; rows set the height.
<input type="checkbox" name="NAME"> Creates a checkbox. Text follows tag.
<input type="radio" name="NAME" value="x"> Creates a radio button. Text follows tag
<input type="text" name="NAME" size=20> Creates a one-line text area. Size sets length, in characters.
<input type="submit" value="NAME"> Creates a Submit button
<button type="submit">Submit</button> Creates an actual button that is clicked
<input type="image" border=0 name="NAME" src="name.gif"> Creates a Submit button using an image
<input type="reset"> Creates a Reset button