Creating an HTML Document

When writing HTML code, we often open the same file with two programs; Internet Explorer (to see the browser view) and Notepad (to see the HTML code). This allows us to make changes to the HTML code in Notepad, save our work, then change to the Internet Explorer program (ALT, TAB is shortcut key) with the same file open, hit refresh (F5 is shortcut key) and see the results of our changes.

Be careful because it is easy to open too many windows and lose track of which code window belongs to which browser window. If this happens, you will make changes to the code in the Notepad window, then you will wonder why the change does not appear in the Internet Explorer window. The reason is because you do not have the same file opened in both programs. I suggest that you close all open windows and use the following steps to make sure you have the same file opened in Notepad as you are viewing in Internet Explorer.

To Create a New HTML file in Windows:

1. Navigate to the drive or folder (My Computer, A:\, etc. or START, RUN, A:)
2. Right click in a blank area, then click NEW, then click TEXT DOCUMENT
3. Type the name for your new file, CHEM.HTM for example, and press the ENTER key
4. When asked if you want to change the extension, since the file may become unusable, click YES

To View the Newly Created File in Internet Explorer (the browser) and in Notepad:

1. Double-click the file (It should open in Internet Explorer - if not, see HIDDEN FILE EXTENSIONS below)
2. From Internet Explorer, click on VIEW, SOURCE
   (This will open the same file with Notepad)

Hidden File Extensions

Windows adds a three character extension to file names to identify the type of file. You have probably noticed that Word documents have a .doc extension, Web pages have .htm, simple text documents have .txt. This extension tells Windows which program to use to open the file when the file is double-clicked. By default, Windows hides file extensions from the user. Since programs that create files automatically add the extension associated with that program, if we save a text document in Notepad as CHEM.HTM, and file extensions are set to be hidden, the file will actually be named CHEM.HTM.TXT - and, we will not see the hidden extension - .txt. TIP: You can enclose your file name in quotes to stop Windows from adding the extension. TIP: One clue that the extension is there, but just hidden, is that we will see the Notepad icon next to the file. It is better to change the setting in Windows to NOT hide file extensions. In order to view file extensions, you can change this setting with the following steps.

1. Double-click My Computer
2. Click TOOLS, FOLDER OPTIONS
3. Click on the VIEW tab
4. UN-check the check mark by the option "Hide file extensions for known file types"
5. Click OK

Once you change this setting, if you recently double-clicked a file named CHEM.HTM that opened in Notepad, you will now see that this file is actually named CHEM.HTM.TXT. With Windows NOT hiding extensions now, you can rename the file, removing the unwanted .txt extension.