Ladies and gentlemen we're here at the morgue with coroner, Jim Lane, who has agreed to show us an HTML body and discuss the meanings of various "body tags."
Good morning, Dr. Lane, tell me, why is it all the bodies are kept in these drawers that look like file cabinets?
Because they ARE files. They all end with the letters ".htm" or ".html"
I see. This one looks particularly gruesome, and it seems to have a rather complicated body tag.
It means this file has a bloody background. That tag refers to a jpg image, always indicated within quotation marks. It's usually quite small (and quick to load). It gets repeated again and again over the entire background of the page. The image must be stored in the same folder with the overall HTML file. It's a way to depart from the standard solid color, perhaps in creating a mood, making the page more interesting. This one is VERY interesting indeed...type B-positive I'd say.
That's a very positive outlook.
Thank you.
You're welcome. And the next one, BGCOLOR="", what does that mean?
Absolutely nothing.
Nothing?
Right, in this case, with nothing between the quotes, it means absolutely nothing. You see, if there wasn't a background used here (we call it wallpaper), there would be color such as "blue" or a hexadecimal color indicator between the quotes that would set the overall background tint for the page. You can tell hexadecimal indicators, they begin with the "#" sign.
Interesting.
Not really.
The next tag inside the same brackets reads TEXT="#804000" what does that mean?
It means the text on this page is gonna be damned hard to read on a blood red background. Here, we should change it to TEXT="black"...not great but easier to read and understand than the hexadecimal code, which before indicated a brown text. With hexadecimal code, you have to look up each color you want on a chart or use some complicated piece of software...very messy...very messy indeed.
Yes, so it would appear.
But, hexadecimal code does allow for the use of subtle colors where single-word descriptors are inadequate.
And the next one is LINK="#FF8040" another hexadecimal code I take it?
Very good! This one indicates the text color of a link from this page to another page. Hmmm...very interesting...that hexadecimal indicates orange...on blood red wallpaper...could have been the cause of death...invisible links...make a note of that...gotta watch your link colors when using wallpaper.
I see. And this one, VLINK="#808000"?
AHA! Just as I suspected, "#808000" indicates RED--INVISIBLE LINKS! VLINK is the color the link changes to when it's in use, an ACTIVE link as we in the profession call it.
Don't yell.
Sorry.
And this last one, ALINK="#ff0000"?
That's just a visited link...the color the text changes to after you've "been there, done that," so to speak.
And finally you end it all with a
tag?
Only if you want a totally empty page.
I beg your pardon?
The
tag goes AFTER all the page content. Here we merely use a ">" to close this particular tag setting the page colors.
Fascinating. So the whole tag reads:
Tell me, Dr. Lane, have you come to any conclusions following your autopsy?
Yes, well, as I said before, the victim died of invisible links...red on red, orange on red, a deadly combination. And I also know who the KILLER was too!
Really! Who?
A color-blind webmaster!
(Gasp!) Well, there you have it. Tune in again next time folks when Dr. Lane will investigate IMAGES!!!
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