<*html>
<*body>
<*h1>My First Heading<*/h1>
<*p>My first paragraph.<*/p>
<*/body>
<*/html>
HTML is a language for describing web pages.
* HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
* HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language
* A markup language is a set of markup tags
* HTML uses markup tags to describe web pages
HTML markup tags are usually called HTML tags
* HTML tags are keywords surrounded by angle brackets like <*html>
* HTML tags normally come in pairs like and
* The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag
* Start and end tags are also called opening tags and closing tags
* HTML documents describe web pages
* HTML documents contain HTML tags and plain text
* HTML documents are also called web pages
The purpose of a web browser (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) is to read HTML documents and display them as web pages. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses the tags to interpret the content of the page:
<*html>
<*body>
<*h1>My First Heading<*/h1>
<*p>My first paragraph.<*/p>
<*/body>
<*/html>
NOTE: PLEASE FIRSTLY REMOVE ALL ASTERIC SIGN
* The text between <*html> and <*/html> describes the web page
* The text between <*body> and <*/body> is the visible page content
* The text between <*h1> and <*/h1> is displayed as a heading
* The text between <*p> and <*/p> is displayed as a paragraph
You don't need any special equipment or software to create HTML. In fact, you probably already have everything you need. Here is what you need:
* Computer
* Text or HTML editor. Most computers already have a text editor and you can easily create HTML files using a text editor. Having said that, there are definite benefits to be gained in downloading an HTML editor.
If you want the best HTML editor, and you don't mind paying money for it, you can't go past Adobe Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is probably the best HTML editor available, and you can download a trial version for starters.
If you don't have the cash to purchase an editor, you can always download a free one. Examples include SeaMonkey, Coffee Cup (Windows) and TextPad (Windows).
If you don't have an HTML editor, and you don't want to download one just now, a text editor is fine. Most computers already have a text editor. Examples of text editors include Notepad (for Windows), Pico (for Linux), or Simpletext/Text Edit/Text Wrangler (Mac).
* Web Browser. For example, Internet Explorer or Firefox.
No, you do not need to be online to create web pages. You can create web pages on your local machine. You only need to go online when you want to publish your web page to the web - this bit comes later.
