Basic HTML

Finding Addresses

Let's add some links to your homepage that will aid in using electronic mail by providing ways to find addresses, and by providing on-line assistance for topics related to email. In the process, we will introduce the important technique of creating "lists" in HTML. In particular, we will see how to create numbered lists, where items in the list are numbered sequentially, and un-numbered lists, where items are not numbered, but each is preceded by a "bullet" symbol. We will also see how to "nest" one list as a sublist of another.

Homepage Exercise

Open your homepage file index.html in your home directory with an editor. Copy the following HTML code with the mouse and paste it into a convenient place in your homepage file:

 
   <h2>Electronic Mail </h2> 
 
Here are some links that will help in finding 
internet addresses for individuals, and in 
determining the physical locations of domain 
names. 
 
<ul> 
<li> 
Finding Email Addresses 
<p> 
<ul> 
<li> 
<a href= 
"http://www.networksolutions.com">
Whois Gateway</a>:  
Physical Location of IP Domains 
(Forms Interface at Network Solutions) 
</ul> 
<p> 
<li> 
Electronic Resources for Email 
<p> 
<ul> 
<li><a 
href= 
"http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/
zen/zen%2d1%2e0%5ftoc%2ehtml"> 
Zen and the Art of the Internet</a> 
</ul> 
</ul> 

(Note: the URL for "Zen and the Art of the Internet" above should be all on a single line when copied into your file; it is broken above only for formatting of this page.) Save these changes in your homepage file, point the browser to your homepage, and reload. You should then have as part of your homepage something like the following:

Notice that in HTML un-numbered lists (where the items are preceded by bullets) begin with <ul> and end with </ul>, while ordered lists (where the items are preceded by numbers) begin with the symbol <ol> and end with the symbol </ol>. In both cases, the individual items of the list are preceded by a <li>. The paragraph tags <p> are optional in the lists; they just insert extra space between items. The above example illustrates that lists can be sublists of larger lists.

Now Customize

Customize the preceding example for your homepage: remove things that you don't like, change or add wording, and add more links to relevant material. A good place to start in finding additional relevant material is this link to email resources.