Burger Barn

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Troubleshooting -- Stage 0: HTML Skeleton ​

Common Errors ​

The browser shows the raw HTML code instead of a blank page ​

Cause: The file was not saved with the .html extension. The browser is treating it as a plain text file.

Fix: Make sure the file is named index.html (not index.txt or index). Re-open it in your browser after renaming.

The browser tab says "index.html" instead of "Burger Barn" ​

Cause: The <title> element is missing or empty, or there is a typo in the tags.

Fix: Check that your <head> section includes <title>Burger Barn</title> with matching opening and closing tags.

The page shows strange characters or question marks ​

Cause: The character encoding meta tag is missing or the file was saved in a different encoding.

Fix: Make sure <meta charset="UTF-8"> is the first element inside <head>. Save the file as UTF-8 in your text editor (most modern editors do this by default).

Double-clicking the file opens a text editor instead of the browser ​

Cause: Your operating system is not set to open .html files in a browser by default.

Fix: Right-click the file and choose "Open with" then select your browser. On macOS you can also run open index.html in the terminal.

FAQ ​

Why is the page blank? ​

That is expected. The <body> is empty, so there is nothing to display. The only visible result of Stage 0 is the title in the browser tab. You will add visible content in Stage 1.

Do I need a web server to open this file? ​

No. HTML files can be opened directly in a browser by double-clicking or dragging them into the browser window. A web server is not needed for this tutorial.

What is the viewport meta tag for? ​

It tells mobile browsers to match the screen width instead of pretending the screen is wider (which causes a zoomed-out view). You will appreciate this in later stages when you add CSS.