Lesson 1: Introduction to HTML

1.1 What is HTML

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language that is used to write web pages and build Websites. It has the ability to bring together text, pictures, sounds, video and links all in one place! HTML files are plain-text files, so they can be edited using standard editors such as Notepad and Wordpad and they are stored with the extensions .html, .htm or .shtml. A webpage written in HyperText Markup Language can be viewed using browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google's Chrome, Safari, Opera, IE and more.

The reason why HyperText Markup Language is the standard formatting tool for WWW is that it is cross platforms, meaning that it can be viewed through different types of computers and mobile devices with different operating system such as the Mainframes, Apple computers, the UNIX system, the popular IBM compatible PCs, smartphones and tablets running on Android OS, Apple IOS, Microsoft's Windows phone and more. It is sort of a common Internet language. The newest version is HTML5.

1.2 HTML Structure

The HTML ( HTML5) document is divided into two parts, the head, and the body. The head of the document contains the document's title and other information, and the body contains the contents and everything else. The body is the larger part of the document, as the body of a letter you would write to a friend would be. Elements are used to describe and format an HTML document, each element describes different document content. An example of an element is <head>, which comprises and open tag written as <head>, its content and an end tag written as </head>. A HTML document must always begin with a <!DOCTYPE html> . DOCTYPE is a declaration that defines the document type. We will discuss tags in more details in next two lessons.

Example 1.1

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>HyperText Markup Language Tutorial</title>
<meta name="description" content="Welcome to HyperText Markup Language Tutorial">
<meta name="Author" content="Dr.Liew Voon Kiong">
</head>
<body><h1>Introduction to HyperText Markup Language</h1>
<p>HyperText Markup Language, is the language of the World Wide Web. Web sites and web pages are written in ...........................</p>
</body>
</html>

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