Intro to HTML

**Stoned Hacker** Thu Dec 10, 2009 11:40 am

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:

Editing HTML

You Should use a plain text editor (like Notepad) to edit HTML. I believe this is the best way to learn HTML.

However, professional web developers often prefer HTML editors like FrontPage or Dreamweaver, or my favorite Notepad++, Instead of writing plain text.