Learning HTML

[Grace Garbe]

	I would like to add a personal experience that points out the necessity 
of learning HTML well, and not relying simply on software packages to do 
everything for you.
	I recently received a 54 page document done in MS Word.  I used 
the free product MS Internet Assistant for Word to convert it for the 
website.  Tables and flowcharts converted beautifully.  However, there 
was an 18 page section done in outline form which was tagged wrong.  IA 
chose <menu> for the tags and there was no appearance of an outline.  It 
was tedious to redo 18 pages with <OL TYPE=A> etc. tags to get the proper 
outline appearance.  If I didn't know HTML, I would not have known that a 
solution existed.  The Table of Contents also did not come out in the 
proper format as no line breaks or paragraph tags were inserted.  It was 
continuous text which was also tedious to tag. (I've also used Hot Dog Pro 
and been unhappy with some selected tags.)
	So add me to the list of people who prefer a text editor such as 
Joe for UNIX or even Word, itself (save it as a text file and add the 
.htm extension to the filename and remember to say "no" to the exit 
statement that will appear in a window).  I also recommend "The Bare 
Bones Guide to HTML" <http://werbach.com/> as a handy reference and "A 
Beginners Guide to HTML" 
<http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerAll.html> from 
NSCA as the only tools you need to get you started.  "Introducing HTML 
3.2" from W3C <http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/Wilbur/>will bring you 
up to date on the latest proposed standards.  The Web has everything you 
need.

Grace Garbe
Web Page Developer
Garcia Consulting, Inc.