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What Is An HTML File?

The document provides information about HTML files and basic HTML tags. It explains that HTML files use markup tags to tell browsers how to display web pages. Some key tags mentioned are <html>, <head>, <title>, <body>, <b>, <p>, and <br>. The document also discusses HTML elements, tags, attributes, headings, paragraphs, line breaks, and comments.

Uploaded by

Bao Ren
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
50 views

What Is An HTML File?

The document provides information about HTML files and basic HTML tags. It explains that HTML files use markup tags to tell browsers how to display web pages. Some key tags mentioned are <html>, <head>, <title>, <body>, <b>, <p>, and <br>. The document also discusses HTML elements, tags, attributes, headings, paragraphs, line breaks, and comments.

Uploaded by

Bao Ren
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is an HTML File?

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language

An HTML file is a text file containing small markup tags

The markup tags tell the Web browser how to display the page

An HTML file must have an htm or html file extension

An HTML file can be created using a simple text editor

Type in the following text:

<html>
<head>
<title>Title of page</title>
</head>
<body>
This is my first homepage. <b>This text is bold</b>
</body>
</html>

Example Explained
The first tag in your HTML document is <html>. This tag tells your browser that this is the start of an HTML
document. The last tag in your document is </html>. This tag tells your browser that this is the end of the
HTML document.
The text between the <head> tag and the </head> tag is header information. Header information is not
displayed in the browser window.
The text between the <title> tags is the title of your document. The title is displayed in your browser's
caption.
The text between the <body> tags is the text that will be displayed in your browser.
The text between the <b> and </b> tags will be displayed in a bold font.

HTML Elements
HTML Tags

HTML tags are used to mark-up HTML elements

HTML tags are surrounded by the two characters < and >

The surrounding characters are called angle brackets

HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b>

The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag

The text between the start and end tags is the element content

HTML tags are not case sensitive, <b> means the same as <B> HTML Elements

Remember the HTML example from the previous page:

<html>
<head>
<title>Title of page</title>
</head>
<body>
This is my first homepage. <b>This text is bold</b>
</body>
</html>
This is an HTML element:

<b>This text is bold</b>


The HTML element starts with a start tag: <b>
The content of the HTML element is: This text is bold
The HTML element ends with an end tag: </b>
The purpose of the <b> tag is to define an HTML element that should be displayed as bold.
This is also an HTML element:

<body>
This is my first homepage. <b>This text is bold</b>
</body>
This HTML element starts with the start tag <body>, and ends with the end tag </body>.
The purpose of the <body> tag is to define the HTML element that contains the body of the HTML
document.

Why do We Use Lowercase Tags?


We have just said that HTML tags are not case sensitive: <B> means the same as <b>. If you surf the Web,
you will notice that plenty of web sites use uppercase HTML tags in their source code. We always use
lowercase tags. Why?
If you want to follow the latest web standards, you should always use lowercase tags. The World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase tags in their HTML 4 recommendation, and XHTML (the next
generation HTML) demands lowercase tags.

Tag Attributes
Tags can have attributes. Attributes provide additional information to an HTML element.
The following tag defines an HTML table: <table>. With an added border attribute, you can tell the browser
that the table should have no borders: <table border="0">
Attributes always come in name/value pairs like this: name="value".

Attributes are always specified in the start tag of an HTML element.


Attributes and attribute values are also case-insensitive. However, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
recommends lowercase attributes/attribute values in their HTML 4 recommendation, and XHTML demands
lowercase attributes/attribute values.

Headings
Headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags. <h1> defines the largest heading. <h6> defines the
smallest heading.

<h1>This
<h2>This
<h3>This
<h4>This
<h5>This
<h6>This

is
is
is
is
is
is

a
a
a
a
a
a

heading</h1>
heading</h2>
heading</h3>
heading</h4>
heading</h5>
heading</h6>

HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a heading.

Paragraphs
Paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>
HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a paragraph.

Line Breaks
The <br> tag is used when you want to end a line, but don't want to start a new paragraph. The <br> tag
forces a line break wherever you place it.

<p>This <br> is a para<br>graph with line breaks</p>


The <br> tag is an empty tag. It has no closing tag.

Comments in HTML
The comment tag is used to insert a comment in the HTML source code. A comment will be ignored by the
browser. You can use comments to explain your code, which can help you when you edit the source code at
a later date.

<!-- This is a comment -->


Note that you need an exclamation point after the opening bracket, but not before the closing bracket.

Basic Notes - Useful Tips


When you write HTML text, you can never be sure how the text is displayed in another browser. Some
people have large computer displays, some have small. The text will be reformatted every time the user
resizes his window. Never try to format the text in your editor by adding empty lines and spaces to the text.
HTML will truncate the spaces in your text. Any number of spaces count as one. Some extra information: In
HTML a new line counts as one space.

Using empty paragraphs <p> to insert blank lines is a bad habit. Use the <br> tag instead. (But don't use
the <br> tag to create lists. Wait until you have learned about HTML lists.)
You might have noticed that paragraphs can be written without the closing tag </p>. Don't rely on it. The
next version of HTML will not allow you to skip ANY closing tags.
HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after some elements, like before and after a
paragraph, and before and after a heading.
We use a horizontal rule (the <hr> tag), to separate the sections in our tutorials.

Basic HTML Tags


Tag

Description

<html>

Defines an HTML document

<body>

Defines the document's body

<h1> to <h6>

Defines header 1 to header 6

<p>

Defines a paragraph

<br>

Inserts a single line break

<hr>

Defines a horizontal rule

<!-->

Defines a comment

HTML Text Formatting


How to View HTML Source
Have you ever seen a Web page and wondered "Hey! How did they do that?"
To find out, click the VIEW option in your browser's toolbar and select SOURCE or PAGE SOURCE. This will
open a window that shows you the HTML code of the page.

Text Formatting Tags


Tag

Description

<b>

Defines bold text

<big>

Defines big text

<em>

Defines emphasized text

<i>

Defines italic text

<small>

Defines small text

<strong>

Defines strong text

<MARQUEE ...>

WIDTH: how wide the marquee is

SCROLLAMOUNT: how far to jump

HEIGHT: how tall the marquee is

LOOP: how many times to loop

DIRECTION: which direction the marquee should scroll

BGCOLOR: background color

BEHAVIOR: what type of scrolling

SCROLLDELAY: how long to delay between each jump

<MARQUEE ...> creates a scrolling display. <MARQUEE ...> is an MSIE extension, but is now supported by
NS 7. <MARQUEE ...> is often regarded as one of the "evil" tags, and that perception alone might be enough
reason to not use it. However, used lightly and with taste (and understanding that it will never render
everywhere), <MARQUEE ...> isn't such a bad tag. It can work well for announcements.
The basic use of <MARQUEE ...> is simple. Put most any kind of markup between <MARQUEE ...> and
</MARQUEE>.
<MARQUEE>
Hi There! <IMG SRC="graphics.jpg" HEIGHT=33 WIDTH=82 ALT="Idocs Guide to HTML">
</MARQUEE>

<MARQUEE ...> is a text level element. By default <MARQUEE ...> has a WIDTH of 100%, so it might appear
as a block level. However, if you set the width to something smaller than 100%, you might notice that the
marquee is in line with the surrounding text.
<MARQUEE WIDTH="20%">
Hi There! <IMG SRC="graphics/idocs.gif" HEIGHT=33 WIDTH=82 ALT="Idocs Guide to HTML">
</MARQUEE>
This is stuff before the marquee

And this is stuff after it. Is it inline?

The content of <MARQUEE ...> does not start scrolling until the <MARQUEE ...> element becomes visible.

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