What is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)?

WHAT IS HTML

Introduction to HTML

Today we will discuss What is HTML and what is its brief history. Friend, whether you are a student, blogger or website owner, you need to know the basics of HTML. If you don’t want to make a career in the IT field as a web designer or developer however you should have to know.

Suppose you are going to start your own business and you have a website. If you want to make any changes to your website, you will contact a web designer or developer for your website improvement. For these small changes, he will charge you hundreds of dollars. So, if you have some basic knowledge about HTML Code you can save this much of amount.

What is HTML? 

          Now, we will first try to understand the meaning of HTML. The full form of it is Hypertext Markup Language. Each and every word has a special meaning that is explained by detail below.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.

H --> Hyper

T --> Text

M --> Markup

L --> Language

Hyper

Hyper means that the HTML does not work in the sequence as a programming language, the next statement is executed after a statement. If there is a link in an HTML file and the user clicks on it, it will open.

It is no matter how many elements are there before and whether they are loaded or not. All the elements of an HTML file are independent of each other.

Text

As we know that text is the most important in a web page. This is the information that is used to present the design of the webpage. HTML text is used to format and present in WebPages.

Markup

Meaning of markup is the format of layout and style of the text. You mark the text by tag. Different kind of tags in HTML that mark the text and show on the webpage. For example, if you mark text by <h1> tag, that text will appear as a large and bold heading in the webpage.

Language

       HTML is a language which is used for web design and development. You can define HTML in a simple way as below-

It is a HyperText Markup Language that is used to create webpages/website by using various tags of HTML. It is a set of markup tags which is used to create and add layout, text format, pictures, graphics, sound and movie clips on the webpage. 

HTML is the first learning language in the field of web designing. CSS is also used with HTML which helps to design webpage even better. Using PHP and JavaScript with HTML, you can make a dynamic webpage.

It is used to create a webpage or website. There are elements represented by tags such as heading, paragraph, table etc. HTML Tags are not displayed by browser only render the content.

A website is a collection of WebPages. For connecting one webpage to another page, the hyperlink is used on the text. Due to hyperlink, such text is called hypertext. In the HTML Hyperlink and Markup, tags are used. That’s why it is called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).

Using HTML you can create an only static page not dynamic because HTML is not a programming language it’s a markup language. If you want to make dynamic webpage you have to use a programming language like PHP, Java etc. The same content is repeatedly displayed in the static webpage whereas in Dynamic different content display.

Programming language performs the arithmetical and logical operation whereas markup language is used to decorate and design the layout of webpage or website.

Design & Development

We can understand through the image of the car. The structure of the car without color like a skeleton can be known as HTML and decorated, the colorful and beautiful car can be known as CSS. The engine which runs the car is known as a programming language. CSS stands for Cascading StyleSheets you can learn it in next coming lesson and the programming language you will learn in the next course.

History of HTML

Developed by -  Tim Berners-Lea

•HTML1.0 - 1991     

•HTML 2.0 - 1995

•HTML 3.2 - 1997

•HTML 4.01 - 1999                 W3C (1991-1999)

                                                              (World Wide Web Consortium)
                •XHTML - 2000
                •HTML 5 - 2014                     WHATWG (2004-2014)

                       (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group)

HTML is a way to present information in a well-formed and attractive way on the World Wide Web. HTML is created by Tim Berners Lee in 1991. The standard of HTML is managed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

The W3C is an international community that creates and manages web standards. When a standard of technology or language gets fixed, then all platforms, developers, and organizations follow it without any conditions.

It does not matter which operating system or editor you are using, HTML is always used to create WebPages.

Webpage/website which is created by using HTML can be viewed on all platforms. You don't need any special platform or software for this. The HTML is platform independent markup language.

HTML Versions

Many versions of the HTML have come to the IT industry. Some of the new elements are added to every version of HTML.  All of the versions of HTML are explained as below

HTML1.0

This was the first version of HTML. At that time very few people knew about this and it was too limited. At that time nothing more could be done with this version than creating webpages with simple text.

HTML 2.0

This version contained all the features of HTML 1.0. With this version, HTML had become the basic medium of website development.

HTML 3

Until the publishing of this version, the HTML had become very popular. This version was discontinued because of the compatibility issue with browsers but later it was published with new and advanced tags.

HTML 3.2

In this version, some new tags have been added. This was the time when the W3C had declared the HTML standard for website design and development. The use of HTML was no limitation and was used extensively.

HTML4.01

This version was published with some new tags as well as the cascading style sheet. Till this time HTML had become completely modern language.

XHTML

This version came after HTML 4.01. In this version, the XML was added with HTML.

HTML 5.0

This is the latest version. In this, some new important tags have been provided for multimedia support. You can get more information about HTML5 from the next tutorial.

Some important Terms Used in internet

1. WWW (World Wide Web)

2. Webpage

3. Website

4. Home Pages

5. URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

6. Web Browser

7. HTML Tags

8. Types of HTML

9. Attributes

WWW (World Wide Web)

    1. It is a collection of web documents and other resources interlinked by hyperlink with URL and accessed by web browser from the web server.

      2. It is a system for finding the document on the internet.

     3. In the World Wide Web, millions of documents are linked with each other using hypertext links.

   4. On the internet, www links the document just like a spider web. It is making the internet easy to use for everyone.                  

Webpage

     1. A webpage is a document that is connected to the World Wide Web.

  2. The web is visible to anyone connected to the internet that has a web browser. The WebPages are created by using a markup language called hypertext markup language (HTML).

     3. It commonly includes text, graphics, and link to another webpage.

     4. The hyperlinks are used to connect different WebPages on the internet.

   5. A webpage is a document commonly written in the hypertext markup language (HTML) that is accessible through the internet by using a browser.

Websites

     1. A website is a collection of WebPages that are related to each other by a certain topic.

   2. A website is like a book on the internet, which provides information about the subject or a particular topic. You can compare with a book.

   3. A collection of pages on the particular topic make a book likewise a collection of WebPages on the particular topic make a website.

     4. A website is created by a person on a computer for an organization to give information about business, products, and services.

Home Pages

     1. A homepage is known as the index page.

     2. It is the first page of a website.

    3. When we access website browser opens index page.

    4. Homepage often has links to other pages within the website.

    5. It acts as a gateway of the website by providing links to its other pages.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

     1. The uniform resource locator is the address of a website or webpage on the internet.

     2. Each website and webpage has a unique address.

     3. We can visit the website on the internet with the help of its address (URL).

Web Browser

  1. A special type of software which is needed to access resources on the internet is called the web browser.

    2. A web browser allows to view, download, upload, surf or access documents (WebPages) on the World Wide Web.

 3. We must install web browser software to use the internet. Internet Explorer is the most widely used web browser software.

                  This browser software is available with windows operating system. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Netscape Navigator etc. are some example of popular web browsing software.

What is HTML Tags ?

                “All the tags of HTML are keywords or commands. They surrounded by angle brackets like <html>. Tags tell the browser how to display documents on the WebPages. The HTML tags normally appear in pairs like <p> and </p>.”

   The basic structure of HTML tag is as follows:

              Syntax:
              <tag-name>text</tag-name>

     Example:

              <b>This tag make text bold</b>

      “HTML Tags are all the keywords or commands used in HTML. They surrounded by angle brackets like <html>. Tags tell the browser how to display documents in the WebPages. The HTML tags normally appear in pairs like <p> and </p>.”

       The basic structure of HTML tag is as follows:

                      Syntax:

                    <tag-name>text</tag-name>

           Example:

                    <b>This tag makes text bold</b>

       Types of HTML Tags

Basically, the tags used in HTML are categorized into two types:

 a. Container Tags (Paired Tags)

       The HTML tags which have the corresponding end/closing tags are known as a container tag.

       <body> text </body>

 b. Empty Tags (Singular Tags)

       The HTML tag which has no end tag is called empty tags. This is also called stand-alone tag or singular tag.

        <img>

        <hr>

        <br>

Attributes

   1. The attributes are always in the start tag of the element.

  2. Each attribute has some value. A value of the attribute is assigned by an equal sign.

  3. Common attributes are color, height, width, align or the location of the linked file.

  4. The attributes are the keywords used to provide additional information to describe the elements.

                      Syntax:

                     <tag-name attribute1=“value1” attribute2=“value2”>

              Example:

                     <body bgcolor=“green”>

              Description:

                        body -> tag

                        bgcolor -> attribute

                        value -> green

More details you will learn in tags and attribute tutorials.

      

             
            << PREVIOUS                                                                                          NEXT >>