Welcome to our HTML/CSS Tutorials

So you are ready to learn HTML so you can create your own Web page or site. Or maybe you would like to learn how to put a little life into your eBay auctions, "me" page or store front. We do not claim to be experts on HTML or CSS, but hopefully, after reading these HTML/CSS tutorials a lot of your questions will be answered.

Creating HTML for eBay is a little different than creating HTML for a full Web page. You are inserting code into an already completed Web page, so watch for these highlighted boxes with eBay specific information.

Special Note: We have created these pages using HTML 4 recommendations by the WC3*. So, although you are free, and encouraged to "view source", what you may see in the source code, and what you will see in the sample code may be different. Sometimes the best way to learn is by viewing others source code. Before you yell at us, no, we are not saying steal someone else's source code, but it is O.K. to look at the code if you would like to know how something was done! We use linked CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to keep file sizes to a minimum, and ASP (Active Server Pages) because of the special functions on these pages.

What Do I Need to Create Web Pages?

A HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file is a text file containing markup tags that tell the Web browser how to display the page. Here are the basic items that you will need to write HTML and work with images:

1. A computer

2. A browser like Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox Firefox is our personal choice. Regardless of your choice of browsers be sure you always keep it updated.

3. A word processor. We strongly suggest that you use a simple text editing program like Notepad. You can easily create HTML files using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or Adobe PageMill, but you have to be careful, as some of these editors add a lot of code that is program specific and tend to create bloated code. If you truly want to learn and understand how to code HTML, we recommend that you use a plain text editor. Microsoft Word should NEVER be used to create or edit your Web pages.

4. An image editor. We recommend downloading Irfanview. It is very easy to use and works well for a freeware program.

What file extension should I use when saving my document?

When you save an HTML file, you can use either the .htm or the .html extension. We use .htm. It is a habit inherited years ago when some of the software only allowed three letter extensions. With the newer software of today, it will be perfectly safe to use .html.

When naming ANY file keep your file names short and do not use special characters or spaces in your file name. If you want to separate words, use a dash ( - ) or ( _ ) underscore.

When working with HTML that you will be using for eBay, saving your files as .txt files is O.K., since you will be copy/pasting your HTML into eBay forms. If you want to be able to preview what you have done in a browser, you will want to save them with the .htm extensions. Once saved with the .htm extension, you can always OPEN with Notepad to edit.

Do I use upper or lower case when writing HTML?

Although HTML tags are not case sensitive, <B> means the same as <b>, if you want to prepare yourself for the next generations of HTML you should start using lower case tags. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lower case tags in their HTML 4 recommendations, and XHTML demands lower case tags. The rule-making folks of the Web, the W3C, are responsible for Web standards. The most essential Web standards are HTML, CSS and XML. Contrary to popular belief, Web standards are not made up by Netscape or Microsoft.