| Basic XHTML Document Components |
XHTML is case-sensitive utilizing lowercase letters for both tags and attributes.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
This opening tag declares what version of XHTML is used in the document
and ensures that the browser will correctly recognize and interpret
the
XHTML information that will follow.
XHTML Version Information
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
This tag contains the entire XHTML document including the <head>,
<title>, and <body> tags.
More
Language Codes
<head> </head>
This tag contains elements that are invisible in the browser window
or any elements that need to processed first such as CSS style declarations
and Javascript. It also includes the following <title> tag:
<title> </title>
This tag contains text that will be displayed in the browsers title bar
and should be used to identify or “ title ” the documents contents.
Note: do NOT use any other XHTML tags here.
<body> </body>
This tag contains the documents content—all text, graphics, and other
elements to be displayed in the browser window.
| Commenting Your XHTML |
The comment tag is not really part of the basic XHTML document template but this is as good a place as any to introduce and begin using it.
A simple definition of a comment is:
information that will not be displayed in the browser window
Comments are used by the designer to make notes, serve as “placeholders” for future developments, or provide instructions for another who may be editing the XHTML document in the future. This is known in the programming world as “commenting the code”.
Example:
<!-- information hidden from the browser
window goes here -->
| The Basic XHTML Template: |
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>The Basic XHTML Template</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
</head>
<body>
<!-- INFORMATION TO BE DISPLAYED BEGINS ON THE NEXT LINE -->
<!-- INFORMATION TO BE DISPLAYED ENDS ON
THE NEXT LINE -->
</body>
</html>
| Save A Copy of The Template: |
Open
the Basic Template and save it into your XHTML project directory/folder
as template.html. Once you've saved it, return here to continue.
Now, in the future, you can use this template.html as a starting point for creating new XHTML documents. Remember not to overwrite it by mistake!
The basics, preliminaries, and template are done so let's get into Editing and Previewing.
 Preliminaries |
 Top
of Page |
Editing
and Previewing |