What really is HTML?
Before you start to learn HTML, I must tell you what it is. It means Hyper Text Markup Language. As per the definition of a language, it is a combination of symbols that serves as a form of communicating.
It allows communication with each other via a computer (machine). Effectively, we talk to the computer using this language and it’s presented to others (users) in a format they can understand. This format is usually text, images, video and audio.
HTML symbols are a combination of 1 or more letters enclosed by angle brackets ( <, > ) and are called Tags or Elements.
For example “<body>, </body>“.
The first being the opening tag and the 2nd being the closing tag. Quotation not included of course.
A basic HTML web page
<head>
<title>My First Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
Hello World! I’m now learning HTML.
</body>
</html>
When coding a web page, always remember that Tags must match case. In other words, lowercase opening tags must follow with lowercase closing tags. I wouldn’t recommend using uppercase in Tags.
You can copy the above example HTML page into a blank text file and save it as “basic.html“. It’s important you are able to edit file extensions. Once the file name is updated, simply double click it and the web browser should load with your new page.
At the very top of the screen on the (usually) blue bar is the title of your page and in the main area is the content.
To Recap
There are many tags to use when writing HTML. To get a feel for how pages are constructed, simply browse to your favorite site, press and hold ctrl + U and you will see the source of the page. Here you will get an idea of how others write web pages.
1 Comments.