Session 3&4: Advanced Blogging + Flickr

Last session, we talked about how to use Blogger.com to create blogs for different purposes. This session, we will cover how understanding some basics of html coding will make the maintenance of your new blog easier.

Things to know about html:

• HTML is the code behind websites that explains to your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc) how to display information
• HTML code is expressed through tags.
• Tags are contained in brackets <>. Anything typed inside the brackets is read by the browser but not displayed. Anything outside the brackets will be displayed.
• Most tags need to be opened and closed.

Examples of tags that need to opened and closed:

• The link tag - NYHS
• Text editing tags like
• bold
• italics
• underline
• Alignment tags like
• 
  
• 
  

Some tags do not need to be closed. They include:

• The image tag -
• The line break (or enter) tag -
  (goes to the next line)
• The hard return (or line) tag -

  ---

  (goes to the next line, draws a vertical line across the page, goes to the next line)

There are many, many html tags you can learn and use. I almost always only use the ones I've mentioned above. Occassionaly, I also use the

tag, which creates bulleted lists, or the tag, which creates tables, but these are not really important for the beginning blogger. You can go to a page like this to learn all about them.

If and when you are having trouble with something in your blog or webpage, you can look at the code and begin to get an understanding of where the problem might be. Are all the tags that are opened being closed? Are image and link web addresses in quotes? Etc.

Often, websites like Flickr, YouTube and others will offer you a box of html code that you can copy and paste into your blog to embed images, video, etc. In order to use this code, you must select "Edit html" from the tabs at the top of your blogger compose entry window.