Breaking it up into paragraphs

So far you have created and modified HTML documents, and you should feel comfortable with the process of editing text and reloading it into your WWW browser. So now relax for this fast lesson on inserting paragraph breaks.

Objectives

After this lesson, you will be able to:

Identify the paragraph break tag in HTML.
Copy text from the WWW page and paste it in another document.
Insert paragraph breaks into the text of your HTML document and view the changes within your WWW browser.

Lesson

HTML Paragraph Breaks

We've seen earlier that a WWW browser will ignore all of the CARRIAGE RETURNS typed into your text editor. But, wherever a browser sees the paragraph tag, it inserts a blank line and starts a new paragraph. The HTML code for forcing a paragraph break is:

<p>

Note that this tag is special in that it does not have an ending tag; you never use:


     </p>

Inserting Paragraph Breaks

Note: If you do not have the working document from the previous lesson, download a copy now.

Follow the directions below to insert and view a paragraph break in your HTML document.

Re-open your workspace (if not already opened).
Go to the text editor window.
Open your working document, Volc.html, in the text editor (if not already opened).
First we want to move the second and third sentences ("A volcano is .....") so that is under the Introduction heading. Use the mouse to cut and paste this text in the proper location.

After this sentence, we want to add another line. But rather than re-typing this in, from this WWW page use your mouse to select and copy the sentence:


     Volcanoes have been a part of earth's history
     long before humans. Compare the history of human 
     beings, a few million years in the making, to that of 
     the Earth, over four billion years in the making.

Now, return to your HTML document in the text editor, and paste this text after the first sentence under the Introduction heading.
Save the changes in the text editor.
Return to your WWW browser.
If your working document is not visible, Use the Open Local... command from the File menu to open the document.
Select Reload from the File menu. You should now see the two sentences of the Introduction. We now want to put a paragraph break between these sentences.
After the first sentence, press RETURN (not necessary but it makes the HTML more readable), and then enter the paragraph tag:
```
     <p>
```
Save the changes in the text editor.
Return to your WWW browser and Reload the document. The two sentences of the introduction should now be separate paragraphs.

Another type of break- the Hard Rule

To separate major sections of a WWW page, use the hard rule or hr tag. This inserts a straight line like you see at the bottom of this page. The HTML format for a hard rule tag is:


     <hr>

As practice, put an hr tag above the Introduction heading. This will help to separate the opening sentence of the lesson from the other portions that will follow.

Check Your Work

If you would like, compare your WWW page to this sample. If your document was different from the sample, review how you entered the paragraph break, <p>, into the text editor. Make sure you entered it as instructed in the Inserting Paragraph Breaks section of this lesson.

Review Topics

What is the HTML tag for a paragraph break?
What steps did you use for inserting a paragraph break in your document?
How did you display and view the changes in your WWW browser?
Extra Credit*- What is a hard rule (hr) tag?

Independent Practice

Use the paragraph or the hard rule tags to create paragraphs or sections in your own document.

Coming Next....

Adding Style to your text.

| Lesson Index | previous lesson "Headings" | next lesson "Styled Text" |

Writing HTML Lesson 4: Breaking it up into paragraphs

The Internet Connection at MCLI is Alan Levine--}
Comments to levine@maricopa.edu