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Contents

* Getting started
* DOCTYPE declaration
* META & TITLE tags
- Colour & layout
* Text organization
* Images
* Tables
* Validation

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Ladies and gentlemen, choose your weapons! :)
One of the most important aspects in web design is the document's layout and colour scheme. The layout is something we will discuss in the rest of this tutorial - or rather, the tags that will help you achieve the layout you would like, because the layout itself depends on your creativity. You can find advice on what layout to choose [and what NOT to choose] in the Web design section.
The colour scheme, however, is determined at the very beginning of an HTML document. Tips on which colour schemes work best can also be found in the Web design section. Here is the code to make your colour scheme work:

<BODY BGCOLOR="background colour" TEXT="text colour" LINK="link colour" VLINK="visited link colour">
</BODY>
Add these tags immediately after your </HEAD> tag and substitute colours of your choosing for the words I wrote [the best thing to do is input the colours in hexadecimal, not word form]. Refer to the Links section for a Web-Safe colour chart.

From now on, every single line of code you write will go in between the BODY start and end tags. The closing of the BODY tag signifies the end of the document, and the HTML end tag should immediately follow it.
But I hear you saying: `Hey, what if I don't want the same kind of colour throughout my page?' Fear not, you can override the BODY TEXT attribute by specifying a FONT colour. To do this, simply type
<FONT COLOR="colour">Your text</FONT>.
Basically,
<FONT COLOR="#FF00FF">This is purple text</FONT>
results in: This is purple text

Remember to close your FONT tag when you're done using that colour and want to switch back to your original one, and make sure the quotation marks surround the colour code [try omitting the last quote mark and see what happens ;)]

Now, let's talk about some key points in layout. Before that though, I really should make it clear what I mean by the terms `element' and `attribute'. An element is the `main' tag - it specifies the function of the tag [or tells the browser what the tag will be doing]. For example, <FONT> is an element - when it is used, it tells the browser that the font is being somehow manipulated. An attribute is an `extra' to go with the element - it either tells the browser what exactly is being done to the element or additional things to go with that element. For example, the COLOR in FONT COLOR is an attribute. So whenever I mention an element, you should know that it comes first in the actual tag. The order of attributes [if any] does not matter.

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