70 Chapter 5 – HTML OverviewDocument Structure
Web Design in a Nutshell, eMatter EditionGoLive CyberStudio (Mac only)
A powerful HTML editing tool that supports all of the cutting-edge web tech-
nologies (JavaScript, ActiveX, WebObjects, style sheets, etc.). It also provides
excellent site management tools. Its interface is more difficult to learn than
other tools, but it seems to be worth the effort. For more information, see
http://www.golive.com/.
Microsoft FrontPage (Mac release lags behind Windows release)
This is Microsoft’s effort in the web authoring arena. It is easy for beginners to
learn and is popular with the business community. On the downside, it gener-
ates HTML loaded with Microsoft-specific tags and it will change pre-existing
documents as it opens them. FrontPage is closely integrated with Microsoft’s
Internet Information Server (IIS), so check with your ISP for possible conflicts.
For more information, seehttp://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/.
FileMaker Claris Home Page
This HTML editor is good for beginners and adequate for noncommercial web
page production. It features a simple interface, easy access to web-safe colors,
a library for storing elements that can be used repeatedly, and much more. It
is guilty of generating redundant HTML full of proprietary tags and it will
change pre-existing HTML documents. For more information, seehttp://www.
filemaker.com/.
Adobe PageMill
PageMill was the first WYSIWYG editor out of the gate in 1995, but it has
since been eclipsed by more powerful packages in the professional web
authoring world. It is still adequate for personal web page production and is
easy to learn and use. It lacks an easy method for accessing the HTML code
and is also guilty of adding proprietary tags to the document. For more infor-
mation, seehttp://www.adobe.com/.Document Structure
An HTML document contains text (the contents of the page) with embedded tags,
which provide instructions for the structure, appearance, and function of the
contents.
An HTML document is divided into two major portions: theheadand thebody.
Theheadcontains information about the document, such as its title and “meta”
information describing the contents. Thebodycontains the actual contents of the
document (the part that is displayed in the browser window).
The following example shows the tags that make up the standard skeletal struc-
ture of an HTML document:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Document Title</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Contents of Document
</BODY>
</HTML>