A basic HTML text formatting tutorial for MySpace users, showing how to use simple bold, underline and italic tags as well as changing text color, style with font tag.

Introduction

HTML is the language of the web, and MySpace users will want to use it to change the default appearance of their pages. It was designed to be human-editable (so anyone can use it to create documents), but also computer-readable. The combination of these makes it flexible, but strict.

When we say that it is strict, we mean that everything has to follow a set of rules. This makes it possible for a computer to process the information without making mistakes. However, remember that HTML is designed to be able to be translated under all circumstances. Errors are often not actually reported by the browser, but result in strange layouts.

So, we need to be very careful when entering MySpace HTML codes, and this MySpace HTML Tutorial will help with those wanting to apply some custom formatting to their pages.

Using HTML Tags

HTML Formatting Tags come in three parts:

• A starting (or opening) tag
• Some text to be formatted
• An ending (or closing) tag

There are specific tags for Bold, Italic and Underlined text, as well as a general-purpose font tag. It is important to remember that everything between the start and end tag will be subject to the formatting that the tag represents, and that if an end tag is forgotten then all the text to the end of the page will be formatted with that tag.

Tags may be nested. That is, one formatting tag can apply to an outer layer of text, while an inner layer can be set to another formatting. This enables the HTML programmer to set a font, make some text bold, some italic, and some underlined, all in the same font. It also means that we can change color word by word, or even letter by letter, without having to remember what font we set at the beginning of the text.

If this seems a little abstract, then study the examples below.

The <B> Tag - Bold Text

The first tag we shall look at sets bold text. It is used thus:

The starting tag is therefore <B> and the ending tag </B>, with the / character denoting that it closes the formatting. The 'B' just means (B)old.

The <I> Tag - Italic Text

The next tag we shall look at sets italic text. It is used thus:

As before, the starting tag is <I> and the ending tag </I>, with the 'I' standing for (I)talic.

The <U> Tag - Underlined Text

Finally, we have the underline tag. It is used thus:

Care should be taken when using this tag, as the text might be mistaken for a hyperlink (and the user might click on it).

We can combine (nest) all three of these tags, as follows:

This would be displayed as:

• BoldItalicisedUnderlinedText

Care should be taken when using HTML formatting in this way, because the tags need to be closed in the order in which they were opened, or the formatting will look strange.

The <FONT> Tag - Changing Font Face and Color

The font tag is more complex, and uses attributes to specify particular formatting properties for the text. We shall look at the three most common font attributes:

• FACE - the font itself, e.g. Arial
• COLOR - the color of the text, e.g. Red
• SIZE - the display size, e.g. 1 (very small)

We specify a font thus:

The tag arrangements are identical to the other tags, the difference is that we now use attributes to change the text's appearance. We can specify any font we want, but need to be aware that not all users have all fonts. However, the common ones are usually supported (Arial, Tahoma, Times, Courier etc.) and the browser will try to use a font that is logical when displaying the page.

We can also nest the tags:

The best way to go forward is to experiment with your MySpace page and see what looks good, and what doesn't.

Links

Other HTML articles to help with MySpace HTML codes and formatting are:

• The Getting Started with HTML Tutorial