Chapter 4, Lesson 9

If you already know how to use the 'BIG' tag to specify larger text, you can skip this lesson.

Remember "headings"? They're great for making large, bold text, but they're worthless for doing anything with larger text inline, that is, mixing large text and normal text on the same line. That's because headings generate an automatic double end-of-line action after each tag occurance. But what if we want to make the first letter in each sentence a little larger, like many book publishers do? HTML gives you a tag pair to do this easily:

<BIG></BIG>

The opening <BIG> tag changes the text font to one size larger (usually), just enough to please the eye, but not so much as to be distracting. The larger font continues until the closing </BIG> tag. Let's see it in action:

Here's a short passage from Kahlil Gibran's <CITE>The Prophet</CITE>:
<P>
<BIG>Y</BIG>our children are not your children. 
<BIG>T</BIG>hey are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. 
<BIG>T</BIG>hey come through you but are not from you.  
<BIG>A</BIG>nd though they are with you yet they belong not to you.  
<BIG>Y</BIG>ou may give them your love but not your thoughts.  
<BIG>F</BIG>or they have their own thoughts.  
<BIG>Y</BIG>ou may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls 
dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, nor even in your dreams.  
<BIG>Y</BIG>ou may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.  
<BIG>F</BIG>or life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. 
 <BIG>Y</BIG>ou are the bows from which your children as living 
arrows are sent forth. <BIG>T</BIG>he archer sees the mark upon the 
path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might, that His arrows may go swift and far.  
<BIG>L</BIG>et your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness; 
 for even as He loves the arrrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Here's a short passage from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet:

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but are not from you. And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, nor even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might, that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

The added emphasis here adds quite a bit to the readability of the document, and is especially useful because HTML does not allow the normal "2 spaces" in front of a sentence. Besides. we can, so we will, heh?

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