RichInStyle.com HTML 4 guide - Introduction

Contents

Introduction to HTML

What is HTML?

HTML is the language of the world wide web. It is used to specify information about the content of web pages, which web browsers can use to display web pages.

Although it is a language, and therefore has its own rules, it is nowhere near as complicated as spoken languages (such as English) or programming languages (such as C).

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language; this gives you an idea of what it is - it is used to markup hypertext (linked content). Since this is the only thing it does - it does not allow you to write computer programs, and it does not allow you to write your own markup languages (for that you require SGML or XML), it therefore can be extremely simple.

Why HTML?

1. Learning HTML gives you a marketable skill.
2. It enables you to communicate with others.
3. Web browsers are free, and if you know HTML you do not need a (costly) word processor.
4. It enables you to correct problems caused by authoring tools - rather than being stuck if your HTML authoring program does not do what you want or does it incorrectly, you can fix it yourself.

Now that I've explained the background of HTML, you will probably want to continue with the next section, which discusses HTML itself.

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