The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the predominant language used to create webpages. A Markup language is not a true programming language. A markup language describes how text is to be displayed. An HTML document is simply a text document with special characters called ‘tags’ inserted into the text that tell a web browser how to display the document. Because of this, HTML is much easier to learn than a more complicated programming language. The World Wide Web Consortium publishes the official specification of the HTML language.
The World Wide Web depends on Web servers to store and display HTML documents, and Web browsers that users use to view these documents. Popular Web servers include:
Popular Web browsers include:
Many schools and universities have excellent tutorials on HTML. The University of South Dakota offers a good introduction to basic HTML, and even offers a quiz at the end. More well-known schools like Princeton University also have tutorials available. A commercial site, w3schools.com, has a more complete guide.
Once you have learned the basics of html, you can move on to the more advanced features. Html Goodies offers a reference guide to the more advanced tags HTML has to offer. Alphabetical listings of all HTML tags can be found here.
Style is also important when presenting information in an HTML page. A page should be easy for users to read and navigate. The Web Developers Virtual Library has examples of good HTML style, and other sites teach good web page design by showing real-life examples of bad design.
Because an HTML document is really just a text document, it can be created with any text editor like Notepad or Wordpad. However, there are several good HTML editors that make writing HTML easier:
Other types of documents, like Word documents or text documents, can be converted into HTML documents. There are many HTML converters available.
Most web pages contain images, which need special formatting to properly display on a web page. Most images are very large and take up a lot of memory. Image editing software like Photoshop for Windows or the GIMP for Linux can optimize images for web use. Public repositories of images exist so web site designers can download stock images to use on their sites.
Many excellent books are available that teach HTML. With the right tools and tutorials, anyone can quickly learn to build useful, attractive web pages.
