Online browsers employ HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, to understand and render text, pictures, videos, audio, and other media for website users. While other technologies determine a website’s design and behaviour, HTML defines the structure of a website. Read on to understand the basics of HTML.
What Does HTML Mean?
HTML is a shorthand for Hypertext Markup Language. Links between web pages containing content that you can view right away by clicking on the link are referred to as “hypertext.” The process of annotating text, photos, and other items to be displayed later is referred to as “markup.”
HTML is based on Standard Generalised Markup Language. It uses many tags and attributes to assist users in viewing the text, links, and images on a page. HTTP ( Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is used to distribute HTML documents on the World Wide Web.
HTML Basics
In 1990, physicist Tim Berners-Lee created HTML at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in an effort to make it easier for researchers to share documents. The World Wide Web was built on this.
Every HTML page consists of a number of tags that are separated by angular brackets (‘< ‘and ‘>’). In general, HTML tags are used in pairs like <h1></h1>, <html></html>, etc.
The opening tag (<p>), which also contains the attributes, is the first of the pair of tags, and the closing tag (</p>), is the second. But some tags, including <img>, <br>, <input>, etc., do not need to be closed after being opened. These tags are sometimes known as unpaired tags or empty tags.
Any web browser, including Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc., employs tags to interpret a page’s content rather than displaying the tags themselves.
The main parts of the HTML elements are as follows:
- Opening tag: The element’s name, in this case (p), is enclosed in opening and closing angle brackets to form the opening tag. This indicates the point at which the element starts to take effect at the start of the paragraph.
- Closing tag: The closing tag is identical to the opening tag, with the exception that the element name is preceded by a forward slash. This indicates the end of the element, in this case, the end of the paragraph. One of the classic beginner mistakes is forgetting to add a closing tag, which can cause unusual results.
- Content: The element’s content, which in this case is only text, is referred to as the element’s content.
- The Element: The element is made up of the content, the opening tag, and the closing tag. The elements can also include attributes to give a non-unique identifier.
What Is HTML Used For?
People can design and build websites with HTML by using elements like paragraphs, headings, links, quotations, photos, and more. It assists in the organisation and formatting of a page rather than having any dynamic capability because it is not a programming language. To specify how each section of the page should appear, it uses simple coding.
Learn basic HTML for free
Want to learn some basic HTML for free? Try our 5 Day Coding Challenge. On this, you will learn more about HTML, but also the basics of CSS and JavaScript. After one hour a day, you will have built your first web page. Register now, through the form below. Alternatively, if you would like to learn more about Code Institute’s Full Stack Software Development programme, click here.
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