A little list

Lists are another way of presenting information in an easy to see way, without having to use tables, which can be quite complicated to set up. Lists are supported by all web browsers, and there are three different types to choose from, depending on whether you want them to be numbered for you, or to contain long definitions.

The simplest type of list that you can put on your web page is called an unordered list. It's just that - a straightforward list, with no numbers, in no particular order. You could use it, for example, as a list of other cool places to visit, or a table of contents for your own web site.

If you're using a web page editor, like the Internet Assistant for Word for Windows, you can create a list just by typing all the items you want on separate lines, then highlighting them and clicking on the list button, just like creating an ordinary list in a Word document.

Creating a list by hand isn't much harder, either. An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag, and each item begins with <li>, for 'list item.' After the list item, just close the list with </ul>. You'll end up with something like this

<ul>
<li>This is the first thing on my list
<li>And this is the second. List items can be as long as you like.
<li>Here's the next item
</ul>

If you want the things on your list to have numbers, all you have to do is swap the <ul> tags for ordered list tags - <ol>. Each item in your list is just like any other piece of HTML code, so it could include a link, or a paragraph, or even another list, which will be indented automatically. Of course, the point of a list is to be easy to read, and if you start to include lots of text, you'll quickly find that it's actually rather difficult to work out what's going on.

To get round this problem, there's a third type of list called a definition list. Unlike the other two types, there are two parts to each entry of the list, a title and a definition. When the list is displayed, the title of each item will appear, with the definition indented below it. Here's an example; the screenshot shows what the different types of list look like in the Netscape browser.

<dl>
<dt>Personal Computer World
<dd>A monthly magazine published by VNU. Probably the most popular computer magazine in the UK.
<dt>Nigel Whitfield
<dd>A freelance computer journalist, who has written for a wide range of magazines including <i>Personal Computer World</i>.
</dl>

By using lists carefully, you can make it easy to find links on your pages, and easier to keep them up to date - it's much simple to find the link you're looking for when everything is neatly arranged in lists, rather than hidden in the middle of paragraphs.

In fact, if you write your own web pages using a text editor, it's worth remembering that you can add as much blank space as you like without affecting how things look, and it'll make it much easier to keep everything up to date. The only time where you'll need to be careful with spaces is in pre-formatted text and around links, where a new line or extra space before the end of an anchor might make some browsers leave an underlined space on the screen.