HTML Basics
The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), developed in the 1990s, is a language for transmitting global hypertext documents. HTML is a "markup language" that defines the structure of a document using information such as tags and text. A web browser reads this information and displays a webpage. In this article, we look at a brief introduction to HTML. Then, we will focus on the structure of an HTML document, mandatory and optional tags, and attributes. As you read these sections, pay attention to the rules for writing HTML. For example, an HTML5 document must contain four basic tags enclosed in open "<" and closed ">" brackets.
Quick Check
- What symbol is used to start an HTML tag? What symbol is used to end an HTML tag?
- What four tags should you use in all HTML documents?
- How do you close an HTML block tag? How do you close an empty tag?
- What is a tag? What is an attribute?
- What are document structure tags?
- What tags should be present in all web pages? What are they used for?
- Give some examples of tags that have attributes. What are the attributes?
- What happens to text that spans multiple lines in the HTML source file?
- What do you think the < and > symbols do? What other symbols do you think are often specified this way in HTML?