This thread is quite old, and contains several minor "errors" that resulted from our limited experience with HTM back in the dim past. It might be preferable to allow this one to fade and become another "historic relic" of the good(?) old days.

It should be noted that on the home page you can click on "FAQ" in the header and get a monitored and updated advice on using HTML. While not aggressively maintained, this link should give currently useful advice on HTML usages that work now.

There have been several "HTML Practice Threads" in the past, where embarrassing or obviously obsolete/defective "advices" were periodically "expunged." The only one remaining (that came up quickly with a superficial search) is named "HTML Practice Thread." The beginnings of this thread are only a little more recent than here, but the last 65 or so posts are 2012 or later, and possibly give more current advice. Only two posts in this thread (three with this one) are less than a couple of years obsolete.

From Offsite (global link):
HTML Practice Thread (http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=12759&messages=185)

From here (local link):
HTML Practice Thread (/thread.cfm?threadid=12759&messages=185)

Since the practice thread currently shows 185 posts, you might want to use:
HTML Practice Thread - first 50 posts
or HTML Practice Thread last 50 posts, recent first

Since the time when some of the earlier threads were needed, mudcat – and most other sites – have "improved(?)" their style sheets and interpreters to accommodate most significant variations in browsers and handling of "slightly deviant" HTML codes.

The "Preview" feature at mudcat makes it mostly redundant to actually post "experiments" that don't work as expected, since it will show you what your post would look like in your browser IF YOU ACTUALLY POSTED IT. If you post it, you'll still see only what it looks like in your browser; and others who use a different browser, and often a different OS, still may see something different than what you see.

An advantage of doing your experiments in a "Practice Thread" is that a few years hence your most boneheaded blunders may disappear – as quite a few of mine have done.

Trying out something new (to you, and sometimes to most of us) can help you to have a better feel for how HTML works. The next step, figuring out what you should do to contribute to mudcat sometimes is a little more difficult, since not everything you can do is always helpful.

John