HTML Basics

An appreciation of HTML, although not strictly necessary in some cases, will be of great benefit to anyone wishing to own their own website.  Here is a little information to get you started.

What is HTML?
When computing people refer to a computer language one is normally tempted to think of a programming language, such as Basic, Delphi or Java.  These languages principally contain lists of statements for the computer to execute, in the course of which we refer to the program as being run.

HTML, by contrast, is an example of what we call a markup language.  Rather than containing statements to be executed, an HTML file consists of a plain text document which has been annotated using HTML tags, in order to define how that document should look in a web browser.

HTML tags are enclosed by < and > characters, containing a word or abbreviation denoting the purpose of the tag.  For instance, the HTML tag

<B>

denotes the beginning of a section of text which should be shown by the browser in bold type.  The end of this section can be denoted by a similar tag but with a forward slash after the opening < character:

</B>

So to display:

My dog has no nose

in our HTML document, we would use:

My dog has <B>no</B> nose

There are many HTML tags covering text, titles, tables, form input fields and much besides, enabling a great deal of control over how your document is displayed on the web.

Why does it matter to me?
Using modern web authoring packages such as MacroMedia Dreamweaver and others, it is possible to lay out entire web pages without needing to know any HTML.

It is likely, though, that in the course of your career as a Webmaster or Site Designer you will need to make an amendment to a site without the appropriate tools available, debug someone else's HTML code, or make use of example code from elsewhere.

HTML is not difficult to learn and is likely to prove an invaluable asset to you.

My Tip: Buy a decent HTML reference book and keep it to hand.  That way you can learn the fundamentals of HTML without having to learn every last detail of every last tag!