The easiest way to start is to download the template and follow the directions in it. You only need the bare minimum HTML code. Here is what the minimum html markup looks like with a couple of different size header tags and a paragraph tag included:
<html>
<head>
<title>The title of your article</title>
</head>
<body style="width: 680px;">
<h2>This is your main page header</h2>
<h3>These are your subheaders or paragraph headers</h3>
<p>These are paragraph tags. Your article text goes here.</p>
</body>
</html>
* The style attribute in the body tag keeps your overflow text on the
viewable page.
* Then repeat the h3 and p tags as needed, keeping them inside the body tags.
* Use h3 opening and closing tags for every subheader you need.
* Use p opening and closing tags for every paragraph
* On this page, the first line is an h2 tag and the second line (Minimum HTML)
is an h3 tag. The paragraph after it is surrounded by p tags.
Besides the title of the page between the opening and closing title tag in the head, and the page width attribute for the page body, everything else goes between the body tags. The <h> tags make the text larger and bolder the lower the number is. These are called heading tags. Surround each paragraph with <p> tags. That's it. You can add any valid html markup you want, including images.
Do not mix tags. For example, do not write something like this: <p><i>My HT <b></i>battery ran low.</b></p>. Notice that the opening bold tag is inside the italics tag and the closing bold tag is outside of the italics tag. This is not valid markup syntax. A better way would be something like this: <p><i>My HT</i><b>battery ran low.</b></p>. Also remember, for every opening tag you need a closing tag.
One other thing you may keep in mind especially if you use graphics is that the display page will only be 680 pixels wide (notice the style attribute in the body tag), since it will open in a modular window. You don't need to worry about this if you are just writing text or if you keep all images on the left margin of the window, since any overflow will automatically word wrap.
If you are advanced enough, you can add your own page styles as well. Like I said, any valid markup is fine. For those who aren't familiar with CSS, don't worry about it.. you don't need it. Just follow the basic instructions above and you will be fine.
After you have created your document, make sure to review it for any markup or spelling errors. If everything looks good, its time to submit it to the web staff so they can review it and add a link to it on the Library page. Just send an email to the site Gmail address with your article attached, include any images that go with it. It is best if you just put everything in one zip file. Write 'Article Submission' in the Subject field of your email and send it to the following address.
