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Getting started

Posted April 20th, 2011

HTML are initials that stand for HyperText Mark-up Language.

  • Hyper is the opposite of linear. It used to be that computer programs had to move in a linear fashion. HTML does not hold to that pattern and allows the person viewing the World Wide Web page to go anywhere, anytime they want.
  • Text needs no explanation. Initially, the web was text only and HTML could only work with text. Now it can work with rich multi-media content
  • Markup is a collection of tag which format content.
  • Language: HTML is a markup language rather than a programming language. You can format content with it but cannot code logic with it.

Your first HTML page

<html>
<head>
  <title>my title</title>
</head>
<body>
Hello World
</body>
</html>

Indentation is optional but it make HTML more readable

Save this file as hello.html. If you are using Notepad on Windows, make sure that the file is not being saved in .txt format.

Then open the file hello.html in your browser by click on the File > open file or similar menu link. The wording is different in different browsers. Once the file is opened, you should see the words "Hello World". At the top of the window, you should see the words "my title".

Every HTML document starts with the <html> tag and ends with the </html> tag. Inside the <html> tag, there should be two sets of tags. One set is the <head> tag and another is the <body> tag. The <head> tag contains title and anything that you do not want displayed on the page but available for the browser. This will be covered in detail later.

The <title> tag set goes inside the <head> tag set. Whatever you type inside the <title> tag would be displayed on the top portion of the frame of the window of your browser.

But how do you see the html code of someone else's page? You will know how to do this by the time you get to the end of this page. The <body> tag controls everything that you see inside the window.

Viewing HTML source code
Whenever you land on an great-looking website, you can see their HTML code for inspiration. To view the source code click on View > Page Source. These are instructions for Firefox. If you are using a different browser, the menu choice would be different. However, every major browser allows users to view the HTML source.

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