Lesson #06 Checking The Source
Written By C-Pimp

I decided to touch base on this subject now rather then later cause it might REALLY help you in your HTML training. A little tip before we get cooking with actual HTML tags!

One of the best tools at your disposal when learning HTML is the ability to view what other web authors have done by accessing their HTML codes. It's a great way of learning and understanding how certain effects or layouts are created with the use of HTML.

Before I give you the goods on how you can actually do this, you must understand that you should never copy someone else's work. Web designers put a lot of time and effort into creating their pages. Duplicating another designers work does qualify as a copyright violation and furthermore will not get you very far in this industry.

It truly is an awesome tool that has served me a great deal over the years. Anyone starting up in HTML should take advantage of it to learn and absorb as much as they can. Authoring in HTML should come from your own inspirations, checking a website's SOURCE is merely an aid to help you learn some new tricks and further develop your own original concoctions.

Now that we have that out of the way - I can show you how to actually do it. It's fairly simple. You can even try it with THIS page.

To view the source HTML code for a specific page, just "Right Click" the body of the web page displayed in your browser and select "View Source" from the drop down menu. This will open up a Text Document on your screen displaying the actual HTML code used to create that particular page.

Another way of doing this, is by going to the top menu of your browser and clicking "View" followed by "Source".

The method outlined above is for those of you that are using Internet Explorer. If you are using another browser such as Netscape, just look for a function that references the SOURCE. The process is fairly similar between Browsers. If the SOURCE does not pop-up for any reason, try clearing out your TEMPORARY Internet files and make sure your NOTEPAD or default TEXT editor is working fine.

Once you have the SOURCE CODE at your disposal, you can copy, paste and save specific tags that spark your interest into a separate text document and store them for future reference. No better way to build a cozy library of tags and codes that might come in handy for any given project.

Next time you come across a cool text effect or interesting web page structure you can go straight to the SOURCE with just a few clicks!