How to View HTML
Right-click in an HTML page and select "View Page
Source" (in Chrome) or "View Source" (in Edge), or similar in
other browsers. This will open a window containing the HTML source code of the
page.
Inspect an
HTML Element:
Right-click on an element (or a blank area), and choose
"Inspect" or "Inspect Element" to see what elements are made
up of (you will see both the HTML and the CSS). You can also edit the HTML or
CSS on-the-fly in the Elements or Styles panel that opens.
A Simple HTML Document
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page
Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>My First
Heading</h1>
<p>My
first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Example
Explained
- The
<!DOCTYPE html>declaration defines that this document is an HTML5 document - The
<html>element is the root element of an HTML page - The
<head>element contains meta information about the HTML page - The
<title>element specifies a title for the HTML page (which is shown in the browser's title bar or in the page's tab) - The
<body>element defines the document's body, and is a container for all the visible contents, such as headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, lists, etc. - The
<h1>element defines a large heading - The
<p>element defines a paragraph
What is an HTML Element?
An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an
end tag:
<tagname> Content goes here... </tagname>
The HTML element is
everything from the start tag to the end tag:
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
|
Start tag |
Element content |
End tag |
|
<h1> |
My First Heading |
</h1> |
|
<p> |
My first paragraph. |
</p> |
|
<br> |
none |
none |
Note: Some HTML elements have no content (like the <br>
element). These elements are called empty elements. Empty elements do not have
an end tag!
Web Browsers
The purpose of a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) is to
read HTML documents and display them correctly.
A browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses them to
determine how to display the document:
HTML Page Structure
Below is a visualization of an HTML page structure:
<html>
<head>
<title>Page title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another
paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Note: The content inside the <body>
section (the white area above) will be displayed in a browser. The content
inside the <title> element will be shown in the browser's title bar or in
the page's tab.
HTML Editors
A simple text editor is all you need to learn HTML.
Learn HTML Using Notepad or TextEdit
Web pages can be created and modified by using professional HTML
editors.
However, for learning HTML we recommend a simple text editor like
Notepad
We believe that using a simple text editor is a good way to learn
HTML.
Follow the steps below to create your first web page with Notepad
or TextEdit.
Step 1: Open Notepad (PC)
Windows 8 or later:
Open the Start
Screen (the window symbol at the bottom left on your
screen). Type Notepad.
Step 2: Write Some HTML
Write or copy the following HTML code into Notepad:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My
First Heading</h1>
<p>My
first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Step 3: Save the HTML Page
Save the file on your computer. Select File > Save as in
the Notepad menu.
Name the file "index.htm" and
set the encoding to UTF-8 (which
is the preferred encoding for HTML files).
Tip: You can use either .htm or .html as
file extension. There is no difference; it is up to you.
Step 4: View the HTML Page in Your Browser
Open the saved HTML file in your favorite browser (double click on
the file, or right-click - and choose "Open with").
The result will look much like this:
HTML Basic Examples
In this chapter we will show some basic HTML examples.
HTML Documents
All HTML documents must start with a document type
declaration: <!DOCTYPE html>.
The HTML document itself begins with <html> and
ends with </html>.
The visible part of the HTML document is between <body> and </body>.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My
First Heading</h1>
<p>My
first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
The <!DOCTYPE> Declaration
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration
represents the document type, and helps browsers to display web pages
correctly.
It must only appear once, at the top of the page (before any HTML
tags).
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration is not
case sensitive.
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration for
HTML5 is:
<!DOCTYPE html>
HTML Headings
HTML headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags.
<h1> defines the most
important heading. <h6> defines the least
important heading:
Example
<h1>This
is heading 1</h1>
<h2>This
is heading 2</h2>
<h3>This
is heading 3</h3>
HTML Paragraphs
HTML paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag:
Example
<p>This
is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This
is another paragraph.</p>
HTML Links
HTML links are defined with the <a> tag:
Example
<a href=" https://fixhubblog.blogspot.com">This is a link</a>
The link's destination is specified in the href attribute.
Attributes are used to provide additional information about HTML
elements.
You will learn more about attributes in a later chapter.
HTML Images
HTML images are defined with the <img> tag.
The source file (src), alternative text (alt), width,
and height are provided as attributes:
Example
<img src="image.jpg" alt="url" width="104" height="142">
HTML Elements
An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an
end tag.
HTML Elements
The HTML element is
everything from the start tag to the end tag:
<tagname>Content goes here...</tagname>
Examples of some HTML elements:
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
|
Start tag |
Element content |
End tag |
|
<h1> |
My First Heading |
</h1> |
|
<p> |
My first paragraph. |
</p> |
|
<br> |
none |
none |
Note: Some HTML elements have no content
(like the <br> element). These elements are called empty elements. Empty
elements do not have an end tag!
Nested HTML Elements
HTML elements can be nested (this means that elements can contain
other elements).
All HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.
The following example contains four HTML elements (<html>, <body>, <h1> and <p>):
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My
First Heading</h1>
<p>My
first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Example
Explained
The <html> element is the root
element and it defines the whole HTML document.
It has a start tag <html> and
an end tag </html>.
Then, inside the <html> element
there is a <body> element:
<body>
<h1>My
First Heading</h1>
<p>My
first paragraph.</p>
</body>
The <body> element defines the
document's body.
It has a start tag <body> and
an end tag </body>.
Then, inside the <body> element
there are two other elements: <h1> and <p>:
<h1>My
First Heading</h1>
<p>My
first paragraph.</p>
The <h1> element defines a
heading.
It has a start tag <h1> and
an end tag </h1>:
<h1>My
First Heading</h1>
The <p> element defines a
paragraph.
It has a start tag <p> and
an end tag </p>:
<p>My
first paragraph.</p>
Never Skip the End Tag
Some HTML elements will display correctly, even if you forget the
end tag:
Example
<html>
<body>
<p>This
is a paragraph
<p>This
is a paragraph
</body>
</html>
However, never rely on this! Unexpected results and errors may
occur if you forget the end tag!
Empty HTML Elements
HTML elements with no content are called empty elements.
The <br> tag defines a line break,
and is an empty element without a closing tag:
Example
<p>This
is a <br> paragraph
with a line break.</p>
HTML is Not Case Sensitive
HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means
the same as <p>.
The HTML standard does not require lowercase tags, recommends lowercase
in HTML, and demands lowercase for stricter document types
like XHTML.
HTML Tag Reference
tag reference contains additional information about
these tags and their attributes.
|
Tag |
Description |
|
<html> |
Defines the root of an HTML
document |
|
<body> |
Defines the document's body |
|
<h1> to <h6> |
Defines HTML headings |
