Most companies these days use tools such as DreamWeaver or FrontPage to create the HTML pages for a website.  While these tools a great for creating nice looking, active web pages, the HTML that is generated from these tools can be a nightmare to work with for the back end programmer.

If you are creating a page that will be a Server page, it is usually easier to edit them with a text editor.  My editor of choice is TextPad, which is available as shareware from www.textpad.com.  Visual Studio is also another excellent choice.

Additionally, you will want to follow a few standards to keep you code easy to read.  It is expected that all HTML files submitted will follow these standards.

Tag Names:  The accepted standard is to capitalize all letters of the tag name.  I prefer to use lower case.  Choose one or the other, but do not mix.
Attribute Names:  The accepted standard is to use lower case.
Attribute Values:  The accepted standard is to enclose values in double quotes (").  I prefer single quotes (').  Choose one or the other, but do not mix.  Note:  Attribute values that contain spaces or other non-AlphaNumeric characters must be enclosed in quotes.  The AlphaNumeric characters are A-Z, a-z, and 0-9.
Non-Required Closing Tag:  Always use closing tags when available, even if the tag is not required.
Indenting:  If a tag or text is inside another tag pair, indent that tag or text.  Take a close look at the examples in previous lectures.  Also, take a close look at the HTML source for the Form Fields example page.