What is HTML?
HTML is a language for describing web pages.
- HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
- HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language
- A markup language is a set of markup tags
- HTML uses markup tags to describe web pages
HTML Tags
HTML markup tags are usually called HTML tags - HTML tags are keywords surrounded by angle brackets like <html>
- HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b>
- The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag
- Start and end tags are also called opening tags and closing
tags
HTML Documents = Web Pages
- HTML documents describe web pages
- HTML documents contain HTML tags and plain text
- HTML documents are also called web pages
The purpose of a web browser (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) is to read HTML
documents and display them as web pages. The browser does not display the HTML tags,
but uses the tags to
interpret the content of the page:
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Example Explained
- The text between <html> and </html> describes the web page
- The text between <body> and </body> is the visible page content
- The text between <h1> and </h1> is displayed as a heading
- The text between <p> and </p> is displayed as a paragraph
What You Need
You don't need any tools to learn HTML at Web School. - You don't need an HTML editor
- You don't need a web server
- You don't need a web site
Editing HTML
HTML can be written and edited using many different
editors like Dreamweaver and Visual Studio.
However, in this tutorial we use a plain text editor (like
Notepad) to edit HTML. We believe using a plain text editor is the best way to learn HTML.
Create Your Own Test Web
If you just want to learn HTML, skip the rest of this chapter.
If you want to create a test page on your own computer, just copy the 3 files below to your desktop.
(Right click on each link, and select
"save target as" or "save link as")
After you have copied the files, you can double-click on the file called "mainpage.htm"
and see your first web site in action.
Use Your Test Web For Learning
We suggest you experiment with everything you learn at
Web School by editing
your web files with a text editor (like Notepad).
Note: If your test web contains HTML markup tags you have not learned,
don't panic. You will learn all about it in the next chapters.
.HTM or .HTML File Extension?
When you save an HTML file, you can use either the .htm or the .html file extension.
There is no difference, it is entirely up to you.
.jpg)
