Kumamoto University:
Comparative Culture
Rick Lavin
Survival English, Part One
&
Making your own English webpages, Part 4: HTML tables, Part 2
Survival English
This course is basically about culture, but most of you also want to improve your English skills. Let's take some time to think about how to survive daily life in an English-speaking country: taking a taxi; ordering food at a restaurant; asking the way; explaining health problems to a pharmacist or doctor; etc.
HTML: More on Tables
Let's take a little time to think about how to use tables imaginatively to layout your page.
Background Colors
The first technique is to usebackground colors. You can see the coloured columns on the left and right of this page. They make the page a little easier to read, and help me organise the information.
Example 1
Here is the basic form of a table with 1 row and 2 columns, and the first column in blue, i.e. like this page.
< TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="18" BORDER="0" >
< TR >
< TD WIDTH=7% BGCOLOR="#3A0ECC" >
< /TD >
< TD >
Page contents
< /TD >
< /TABLE >
NOTE: To make this quoted code appear correctly in Netscape Navigator 4, I have had to insert spaces between the angled brackets and the words contained therein. YOU SHOULD DELETE THESE SPACES WHEN USING THE TAGS.
Example 2
Here is the HTML code of the prototype Minus One webpage. This is the webpage of a musical group, so here image is more important than substance. Black is generally considered a "cool" color to use on music or art sites.
First, have a look at the page and try to guess how the HTML code was written.
Now here's the actual code I used.
< body bgcolor="black" > < TABLE width=567 CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="5" BORDER="0" >
< tr >
< td colspan=2 >
< font color="blue" >
< h1 > Minus One: music for koto and guitar < /h1 >
< /font >
< /td >
< /tr >
< tr >
< td valign="middle" >
< IMG SRC=" MinusOne1.1JPEG" WIDTH="254" HEIGHT="184" ALIGN=center alt="Minus One graphic" >
< /td >
< td valign="top" >
< Font color="red" >
< p > Blending guitar and koto, Japanese and western, in a totally new musical paradigm, Minus One will boost your alpha waves to infinity and beyond. < /p >
< p > Actually, we're not as weird as we sound - we just love stringed instruments. We think that the koto and guitar are made for each other, but for some reason no-one seems to have thought of this combination. < /p >
< IMG BORDER="0" SRC= " Minushotspot1.JPEG" >
< br >< br >
< /td >
< /tr >
< /table >
< /body >
You may like to take another look at my Cocktail page, too, to see another way to use tables. |