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
<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 Do You Need?
You don't need any tools to learn HTML at W3Schools.- You don't need any HTML editor
- You don't need a web server
- You don't need a web site
Editing HTML
In this tutorial we use a plain text editor (like Notepad) to edit HTML. We believe this is the best way to learn HTML.However, professional web developers often prefer HTML editors like FrontPage or Dreamweaver, instead of writing plain text.
Use Your Test Web For Learning
We suggest you experiment with everything you learn at W3Schools 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 Extension?
When you save an HTML file, you can use either the .htm or the .html extension. We use .htm in our examples. It is a habit from the past, when the software only allowed three letters in file extensions.With new software it is perfectly safe to use .html.
