On my way to becoming a real teacher, I somehow got to instruct a one hour seminar on HTML basics in 1996. This is the document I used as a reference for my students at the time. I'm getting all nostalgic looking at some of these deprecated tags. I don't even know if this counts as HTML 2.0 compliant!
GENERAL:
tags are of the following format:
<tag option option ...>
denotes the start of a formatting command (the options are optional, in which case the tag may look like: <tag>)
</tag>
denotes the end of the formatting option
(some tags don't need an ending, like <p>, <br> <hr>, <img> etc.)
FORMATTING TAGS:
<br>
like hitting return once
<p>
like hitting return two times but can't (effectively) be repeated
<center></center>
centers the items between the tags
<hr size="x" width="X">
"horizontal rule": draws a nice line across the screen. size changes thicknesses (x is the number of pixels tall the line should be, standard being 1) width changes the width (X is the number of pixels wide or the percentage of the window you want the line to cover written as 'xx%', 100% being redundant as <hr> already covers 100%)
<img src="X" width="X" height="X" align="X">
include an image: src is the location and name of the image (i.e.: /img/blah.jpg), width is the width of the image in pixels or percent of original width, height is similar to width except changes the height, (I never use height or width tags, it often makes the image look messed up, it's better to alter the image through photoshop) and align aligns the image with adjacent text (X is middle, top, bottom, left or right for text lined up with the middle top or bottom of the image and text to the right (image on the left) or left (image to the right)).
<html></html>
should start and end an html document
<head></head>
the second tag in an html document
<title></title>
contained in <head></head>, denotes the title of the web page (seen at the top of the window).
<body bgcolor=xxxxxx background="X" text=xxxxxx link=xxxxxx vlink=xxxxxx alink=xxxxxx></body>
the first tag after <head></head>, denotes the body of the document. bgcolor is the color of the background, background provides a path to an image that will be "tiled" (repeated to fill up the window) in the background, text changes the color of the text, link changes the color of the (unclicked) link, vlink changes the color of links that have been followed, alink changes the color of the link when you hold the mouse button down on it. (xxxxxx is the hexidecimal value of a color).
<a href="X"></a>
the all-important "link." X is the destination that the user will go to when they click the link.
<a name="X"></a>
used for jumping around on a given page. <a href="#blah"></a> jumps to the place where the tag <a name="blah"></a> is.
FONT TAGS:
<i></i>
italicize whatever is between the two tags
<b></b>
make bold whatever is in between the two tags
<font size="X" color=xxxxxx face="X"></font>
change the font between the two tags. size changes the size (X is +x, -x or x where x is a number). color changes the color (xxxxxx is the six digit hexidecimal number thing for the color you want). face changes the actual font from standard web font (times) to whatever (X is the name of the font) note: this last part is not recommended as not everyone has the same fonts and they need the font installed on their computer in order to make this tag useful (it's still readable if they don't have it though, just not in the font you want them to see)
<small></small>
same as <font size="-1">
<big></big>
same as <font size="+1>
<hN></hN>
"headline" font (N=1,2,3,4... and 1 is the biggest size) note: </hN> also counts as a <p>
<tt></tt>
"tele-type" font face, looks like "courier" but can be used on all browsers
<pre></pre>
pre-formatted text, useful for tables, counts all the spaces
<blink></blink>
makes the text "blink." never use this, it's considered as annoying as writing in all capital letters.
LIST TAGS:
<ul type="X"></ul>
unordered list (uses bullets down the left side) type changes the style of the bullets (X can be 'square' or 'circle'). use with <li>
<ol type="X"></ol>
ordered list (numbered down the left side) type changes the numberings (X is 'a', 'I', 'A' or 'i' for lower-case letters, upper-case roman numerals, upper-case letters or lower-case roman numerals). use with <li>
<dl></dl>
text list (no bullets or numbers) use with <dt> or <dd>
<li type="X">
item in an unordered or ordered list type changes the type of bullet or number for this item only
<dt>
left justified text list item
<dd>
indented text list item
note: lists can be "nested." nested ordered lists create a standard outline format and unordered lists alternate between the standard bullets, square bullets and circle bullets.