WHAT IS HTML
- Standardized Code
- Web Pages
- SGML
- Descriptive Markup
- Tags
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. HTML consists of standardized codes,or "tags", that are used to define the structure of information on a web page. HTML is used to prepare documents for the World Wide Web. A web page is single a unit of information, often called a document, that is available on the World Wide Web.
HTML defines several aspects of a web page including heading levels, bold, italics, images, paragraph breaks and hypertext links to other resources.
HTML can be compared to word processing. The text in a word processed file can be formatted in various ways. For example, a heading can be bold and in larger font size than the rest of the document. Also, specific words can be italicized for emphasis.
HTML is a way to define the formats of text in a web page. However, it goes further by also being able to define placement of graphics and hypertext links.
HTML is a sub-language of SGML, or Standard Generalized Markup Language. SGML is a system that defines and standardizes the structure of documents.
Both SGML and HTML utilize descriptive markup to define the structure of an area of text. In general terms, descriptive markup does not specify a particular font or point size for an area of text. Instead, it describes an area of text as a heading or a caption, for example.
HTML is standardized and portable. A document that has been prepared using HTML markup "tags" can be viewed using a variety of web browsers, such as Netscape and Lynx. A browser interprets the tags in an HTML file and presents the file as a formatted, readable web page.
In addition, HTML documents can be viewed on all types of systems, such as Macintosh, PC and Unix Machines.
HTML tags are used to define areas of a docutmen as having certain characteristics.
The tags used in HTML usually consist of a code in between two "wickets". These codes are called container tags because the formatting described by the tags affects only the text contained between the tags.
For example, <B> and </B> are the starting and ending tags used to indicate an area as bold. Therefore, the following markup will yield a sentence with the word "hello" in bold.
Only the word <B>hello</B> will be bold.
HTML tags are used to define heading levels, such as <H1> and </H1>. Heading levels can go to <H6>, with each successive number indicating a smaller heading size.
Some other basic HTML tags are:
- <I> and </I> used to indicate italics
- <img src="name-of-picture"> used to place an image in a document file
- <P> used to create a paragraph break
The following HTML markup produces the web page shown.
On the left is the HTML file that was written to create the web page. The HTML file is a plain text file that has been saved with an ".html" file extension. HTML files can be written in any text editing program.
Filename: sample.html
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In HTML, some codes require end tags and some do not require end tags.
In the previous example, the <P> tags indicate a paragraph break. This type of code is called an empty tag because no end tag is required.
The <P> tag does not need an end tag (like <B> and </B>) because a paragraph break is a single entity.
In Summary:
HTML is a set of standardized codes, or tags, that have been derived from the SGML standard. HTML defines and describes the structure of a web page and is used to prepare documents for the World Wide Web. In addition, HTML documents are portable - they can be viewed with any web browser on any type of computer.
The tags used in HTML consist of a code in between two "wickets". For example, For example, <I> and </I> are the starting and ending tags used to indicate an area of text as italic. Some tags, such the paragraph break, <P>, do not require an ending tag.
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