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9th October 2006

Week 3 Practical

HTML supports ordered, unordered and definition lists.

Examples

An unordered list
This example demonstrates an unordered list.

An ordered list
This example demonstrates an ordered list.

Unordered Lists

An unordered list is a list of items. The list items are marked with bullets (typically small black circles).

An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

<ul>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ul>

Here is how it looks in a browser:

* Coffee
* Milk

Inside a list item you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.

Ordered Lists

An ordered list is also a list of items. The list items are marked with numbers.

An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

<ol>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ol>

Here is how it looks in a browser:

1. Coffee
2. Milk

Inside a list item you can put paragraphs, line breaks, images, links, other lists, etc.

More Examples

Different types of ordered lists
This example demonstrates different types of ordered lists.

Different types of unordered lists
This example demonstrates different types of unordered lists.

Nested list
This example demonstrates how you can nest lists.

Nested list 2
This example demonstrates a more complicated nested list.

Definition list
This example demonstrates a definition list.

With HTML you can display images in a document.

Insert images
This example demonstrates how to display images in your Web page.

Insert images from different locations
This example demonstrates how to display images from another folder or another server in your Web page.

The Image Tag and the Src Attribute

In HTML, images are defined with the <img> tag.

The <img> tag is empty, which means that it contains attributes only and it has no closing tag.

To display an image on a page, you need to use the src attribute. Src stands for "source". The value of the src attribute is the URL of the image you want to display on your page.

The syntax of defining an image:

<img src="url">

The URL points to the location where the image is stored. An image named "boat.gif" located in the directory "images" on "www.w3schools.com" has the URL: http://www.w3schools.com/images/boat.gif.

The browser puts the image where the image tag occurs in the document. If you put an image tag between two paragraphs, the browser shows the first paragraph, then the image, and then the second paragraph.

The Alt Attribute

The alt attribute is used to define an "alternate text" for an image. The value of the alt attribute is an author-defined text:

<img src="boat.gif" alt="Big Boat">

The "alt" attribute tells the reader what he or she is missing on a page if the browser can't load images. The browser will then display the alternate text instead of the image. It is a good practice to include the "alt" attribute for each image on a page, to improve the display and usefulness of your document for people who have text-only browsers.

Basic Notes - Useful Tips

If an HTML file contains ten images - eleven files are required to display the page right. Loading images take time, so my best advice is: Use images carefully.

More Examples

Background image
This example demonstrates how to add a background image to an HTML page.

Aligning images
This example demonstrates how to align an image within the text.

Let the image float
This example demonstrates how to let an image float to the left or right of a paragraph.

Adjust images to different sizes
This example demonstrates how to adjust images to different sizes.

Display an alternate text for an image
This example demonstrates how to display an alternate text for an image. The "alt" attribute tells the reader what he or she is missing on a page if the browser can't load images. It is a good practice to include the "alt" attribute for each image on a page.

Make a hyperlink of an image
This example demonstrates how to use an image as a link.

Create an image map
This example demonstrates how to create an image map, with clickable regions. Each of the regions is a hyperlink.

Turn an image into an image map
This example demonstrates how to turn an image into an image map. You will see that if you move the mouse over the image, the coordinates will be displayed on the status bar.

A good background can make a Web site look really great.

Examples

Good background and text color
An example of a background color and a text color that makes the text on the page easy to read.

Bad background and text colour
An example of a background color and a text color that makes the text on the page difficult to read.

Backgrounds

The <body> tag has two attributes where you can specify backgrounds. The background can be a color or an image.

Bgcolor

The bgcolor attribute specifies a background-color for an HTML page. The value of this attribute can be a hexadecimal number, an RGB value, or a color name:

<body bgcolor="#000000">
<body bgcolor="rgb(0,0,0)">
<body bgcolor="black">

The lines above all set the background-color to black.

Background

The background attribute specifies a background-image for an HTML page. The value of this attribute is the URL of the image you want to use. If the image is smaller than the browser window, the image will repeat itself until it fills the entire browser window.

<body background="clouds.gif">
<body background="http://www.w3schools.com/clouds.gif">

The URL can be relative (as in the first line above) or absolute (as in the second line above).

Note: If you want to use a background image, you should keep in mind:

Will the background image increase the loading time too much?

Will the background image look good with other images on the page?

Will the background image look good with the text colors on the page?

Will the background image look good when it is repeated on the page?

Will the background image take away the focus from the text?

More Examples

Good background image
An example of a background image and a text colour that makes the text on the page easy to read.

Good background image 2
An example of a background image and a text colour that makes the text on the page easy to read.

Bad background image
An example of a background image and a text colour that makes the text on the page very difficult to read.

Note: Only 16 colour names are supported by the W3C HTML 4.0 standard (aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow). For all other colors you should use the Color HEX value.