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Introduction to HTML

Part 1 of 4

Web pages are built using HTML, a simple programming language. HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language. How the language got so hyper is beyond me, too much caffeine maybe. Other programming languages can also be used, but HTML is the only language necessary for a simple web page. The web page source code instructs the browser what to display through the use of HTML tags.

So that you understand what a "tag" is, here's an example: 

<html>

Each tag has an opening and closing container, which are the lesser-than (<) and greater-than (>) arrows, and the HTML command within them. The example tag above is the beginning of an HTML document. It tells the browser it's a page written in HTML so the browser knows what to do with it.

Most tags that are opened must be closed, although there are a few that have no closing tag. To close a tag is just a matter of repeating the tag with a forward slash before the HTML command. Example: 

</html>

As you can see, I've used a forward slash before the html command opened in the first example to close the example tag.

There are dozens of tags, but only a few that you have to know to make a simple web page. If it looks confusing, just play along, it really isn't that difficult. These lessons in the basic section will walk you through it one step at a time. In about 20 minutes you'll have made your first web page!

To begin with, you'll need a browser, (d-oh!) and a text editor. There are HTML editors that make web building easier for some people, but you really should the learn the basics first. If you don't, you won't know how to fix problems when problems arise -- and they will crop up now and then. With an understanding of how it all works, you'll be much better prepared to figure out what goes wrong.

I use Notepad, so will refer to that later in this tutorial. Notepad comes with every Windows PC, and if you know HTML it's all you really need. I build all my sites using Notepad. You'll find it in your Accessories folder. All Mac users have SimpleText for a plain text editor.

Well now, ready to shift second gear? Click the Next link below.