Googling Answers

My prior Post showed the answer to a Blogging problem I ran into.

This Post illustrates the key Process I used to find the answer.


In my second Post, I wanted to show some simple sample HTML code but all that appeared was:

( and )

Seeing that, I knew the Browser probably was executing the missing text rather than displaying it. I knew it could be stopped but didn't remember how...

The Answer to Every Question is on the Internet.

This fact is a source of the Internet's boost to Productivity. It may take some searching and pondering, but the solution is there.

The Best Place to Start Finding an Answer is Google

Though it also finds lots of blather, currently Google is the best way for ordinary Joe's to find answers or, at a minimum, the clues to answers. A library stuffed to the gills with books can't compete with Google's speed and ease.


So in my case, I entered the basics of my question "embed html code as text" in Google. A promising result about "Embedding HTML codes. . .embed HTML into text" appeared at the top but it seemed complicated and not what I wanted when I checked it. The other search results on the first two pages Google returned didn't look promising.

I find that if the first page of Google's search results doesn't help, you should revise the search words.

In my case, I figured "embed" might not be a good word, so I searched again with "web page display html code as text" and hit Gold at the top of the first page with "Felgall Internet - Displaying HTML Source Code in Web Pages." The link led to a web page where this gentleman had a translator that converts HTML code to text that can be displayed. I didn't want that in particular. . .I wanted to know what got changed. Fortunately, I didn't have to translate something to find out -- lower on the page he explained what happened and I could see the actual "less than" and "greater than" keyboard symbols where changed to equivalent codes that (I then remembered) the Browser would display rather than execute. If the Browser ignored those key symbols, the other associated text also displayed as text.

Now. . .not every Blogger will want to Post sample HTML code as text. But certainly all serious and successful Bloggers will code HTML and have a question. And EVERYONE will have a question about something.


By the way, googling "display html code as ordinary text" now returns a reference to my prior Post about how I got HTML code to show as text, so now I'm part of the solution, which certainly is better than being eaten by a Shark.