Web Design Articles | Web Design Tips
What is a HTML document?

A HTML document is a plain-text file. It can be edited using the Notepad on a Windows based computer, or you may also use any word-processing software. When using these forms of software to create your page you must save the document as "text only with line breaks." The HTML document is made up of many elements, each of these elements tells your web browser how to interpret the document. These elements are most commonly called tags.

What are HTML tags?

When a web browser loads your page, it reads the plain text file and looks for special codes or "tags." These tags are shown by the < and > signs. The general format for a HTML tag is <tag_name> followed by a string of text, then the closing tag </tag_name>. As an example, you can bold a string of text by using the bold tag. <b>This text will be bolded</b>. It is important not to forget the ending tag. If you forget the ending tag or the "/" slash character, the web browser will continue the tag for the rest of your document.

A basic HTML document

Step 1:
There are a few basic HTML tags that are used in every HTML document.
These required elements are <html> , <head> , <title>, <body> tags and their ending tags.
The example can be viewed here. 

    <html> 
    <head> 
    <title>A Basic HTML Example</title> 
    </head> 
    <body> 
         <!-- Comments may be added in, but will not be viewed by the browser. --> 
    </body> 
    </html>
The first and last tag in a document should always be the <html> tag. This tag tells your web browser where the the HTML in your document begins and ends. Between the <html> and </html> each HTML document should consist of head and body elements. The <head> contains the title, and what you put in between the <title> and </title> will appear at the top of your web browser's title bar. The title will also appear in your history list and when you create a bookmark for the page. The tag <body> comes after the </head> structure, and the body contains the content of your document, which is made up of paragraphs, lists, and other elements. These elements will be displayed within the viewing area of your browser's window.

The <body> element also contains the information about your choice of background color, the color of your text and hyperlinks. This can be accomlished by including the information such as, <body background="black" text="white" link="yellow" vlink="green"> . This will cause the background of your web page to be black, the text white and your hyperlinks yellow. The vlink element is the color that the hyperlink changes to after you have click on it. You can see and example of this in the next section.