Tags for this article: basics, html, introduction, tags, tutorial
HTML is a short form of Hypertext Markup Language. A markup language provides a means to describe the structure of both text-based information and extra information on the web page.
Basic Requirements:
To start with your HTML programming, you should have a web browser and a text editor. Since HTML is a text-only document, a program such as Notepad is perfect.
Tags:
In the case of HTML, the markup information is contained in “tags,” which are easily recognizable by the < > symbols. To format a web page, “tags” are used at the beginning of a section, called opening tags, and end of a section, called closing tags. An opening tag always has “<” and “>” and a closing tag always has “</” and “>”, which occur in begin-end pairs. The first and last tags in a document should always be the HTML tags. These pairs are in the form
<tag> … </tag>.
Document Tags
- HTML
- HEAD
- TITLE
- BODY
- Comment Tags
Creating and Viewing HTML Documents
Every file with the .html is usually opened by default with a web browser. If you are placing the file on a server that is visible from the WWW, type the name of the file after the address of the server.
Structure of an HTML Document
Every HTML document consists of two basic parts: the “head” and the “body.” The head starts with the <head> tag and ends with the </head>, for the body the <body> tag is used in a similar manner. Both the head and the body must be enclosed in <html>….</html>.
Structure of the HTML Docs
<html>
<head>
<title>Title bar text<title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Look, I’m not an Alien!</p>
</body>
</html>
Formatting Text
Valid specifications of the language allow for formatting of text and design using HTML tags, without any CSS. Headlines need to be inside dedicated H tags, while regular text goes in paragraphs and with the appropriate line breaking applied. The three most common text decorations are bold text, italic text, and underlined text. There are six types of headline tags, or headings, defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags.
HTML Lists:
- Unordered Lists
- Ordered Lists
- Definition Lists
There are three types of lists: unordered lists, ordered lists, and definition lists. In case of ordered list, any number of items is listed by using numbers. Whereas in unordered list, bullets are used to list any number of items. Definition lists are based on term-definition pairs, not on list items.
Metatags:
While offering no visual advantage on your pages, META tags work behind the scenes for search engine optimization. These tags are placed after the tags at the beginning of your HTML document. Keywords, which can identify your website, are placed after meta tags section. Search engines use these words to compare to what users enter in for search results. The “description” section is what will appear on the search engine when someone searches for your site. By coming up with a description, you can immediately let the user know what kind of site you are offering.
Growth of HTML over the years:
Developed by Tim Berners-Lee, HTML has now become an internationally accepted standard, now maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. Starting with loose syntactic rules, HTML was effectively improved, overtime, by creating increasingly strict language syntax. The original HTML specification described 22 elements, and 13 of those are valid even today.