PR HTML Starter Kit
June 10, 2009
For a long time, many of us in PR buried our heads in the sand when it came to learning HTML. Why would we need to know that? Isn’t it a programming language meant to be used by programmers? Well, yes and no. PR people don’t need to know all the intricacies of this complex coding language; however, we do need to understand the very basics. In fact, forward-thinking public-relations people believe that HTML coding is the number one new skill that all PR pros should learn.
You may not use HTML every day (at least not yet), but the more comfortable you become with it, the more you’ll use it in Facebook notes, social media releases, blog comments and minor web site edits.(Think of how convenient — and quick! — it would be to make minor changes to a web site without having to call in the programmers!)
PR HTML Starter Kit
Tip #1: Brackets
Let’s start by understanding the format for HTML codes. You’ll see these less than (<) and greater than (>) brackets surrounding HTML tags. That’s coding language. You don’t really need to understand why they’re used … just remember that whenever you use a code, you need to include the brackets.
Tip #2: Simple Codes
These codes should be inserted before the word or section you’re editing:
- Bold <b> or <strong>
- Italics <em> or <i>
- Strike <strike>
- New paragraph <p>
- Line break <br>
- Unordered list <ul>
- Bullets <li>
- Embedding links <a href=”insert URL here”>
- Blockquote <blockquote cite=”text here”>
Tip #3: Closing Brackets
After you insert your code, don’t forget to close the bracket with a backward slash followed by the code — again in the brackets. For example if you want to bold a word, you’d type this:
<b>Bold example</b>
To embed a link, follow this format:
<a href=”www.costadevault.com”>Costa DeVault web site</a>
Tip #4:You Tell Us
We realize this isn’t a comprehensive list. In fact, it doesn’t even qualify as HTML 101 — you’d need a programmer for that! But, that’s ok. Focus on grasping the basics first and go from there.
There are thousands of tags that we could be using. Which ones would you add to this starter list?
Photo credit: Coxar
