Just learning HTML - and what I wrote looks like rubbish

[preciousfoods]

I have just begun HTML, can someone please rectify my rubbish, I have written my page like that : <!-- li{list-style-type:none;float:left;} p{text-align:center} -->
<ul>
<li>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #000099; font-family: 'Arial'; font-style: normal;">blablablablablablablablablablablablabla <span style="font-weight: bold;">BLABLABLA! </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial'; font-style: normal;">blablabla etc etc

I guess that's just not the way... it looks atrocious :)

[edited by: tedster at 2:56 pm (utc) on Jun 27, 2010]
[edit reason] split from another thread [/edit]

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums, preciousfoods.

The first thing to do is to make sure your mark-up validates. The snippet you posted doesn't show the closing tags for all the <span> elements (although I realize they might appear further on).

W3C Validator - HTML [validator.w3.org]
W3C Validator - CSS [jigsaw.w3.org]

[preciousfoods]

thank you so much. Yes they appear further on, I mean the code works, but it seems it is awfully written :)

[tedster]

Right - that is too much inline CSS for my taste. Some savvy use of external css files with classes and IDs would clean it up quite well. Still, MS Office can output much worse code than that ;)

Mark-up something like architecture. A building can be structurally sound and fulfill its function but still be ugly and difficult to maintain.

[preciousfoods]

thank you very much. As I am absolutely new to it, CSS files with classes would mean I should rewrite with .divs etc?

[tedster]

Not necessarily - you can apply CSS classes or IDs to all kinds of elements - including tables, rowhs and cells.

You may find this thread a good place to start: CSS Crash Course [webmasterworld.com]

[preciousfoods]

thank you so much, I have printed the whole course and will start studying it.
Also, I wanted to ask, I have uploaded videos on my host, can I point to them on a page by doing something similar as <a href= etc... ?
thanks!

[preciousfoods]

I mean is there an html code like img src= for videos?

[tedster]

It depends on the format of the video and how you want it to play. The easy way is to upload the video to a video sharing site like Youtube and use the "embed" code they automatically generate.

[preciousfoods]

ah, thank you. Hmm, is it very complicated when they are uploaded on my bluehost? videos on youtube disappear a bit quick :)

[preciousfoods]

oh, it is .flv BTW

[topr8]

>>videos on youtube disappear a bit quick

if they disappear on youtube then i guess they are illegal? or in breach of someone's copyright?

if that is the case then expect the copyright holder to get your entire website taken down if you host them yourself and for them to possibly sue you, depending on where you live you might not care about this but otherwise you might.

[preciousfoods]

Thank you, is there a way to embed from my own bluehost account?
thank you.

[preciousfoods]

ok, I found, thank you.