What Is HTML? Hypertext Markup Language Explained And History

HTML Introduction

HTML is an acronym which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language which is used for creating web pages and web applications. Let's see what is meant by Hypertext Markup Language, and Web page.

What is HTML?

  • HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
  • HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages
  • HTML describes the structure of a Web page
  • HTML consists of a series of elements
  • HTML elements tell the browser how to display the content
  • HTML elements label pieces of content such as "this is a heading", "this is a paragraph", "this is a link", etc.

Hyper Text: HyperText simply means "Text within Text." A text has a link within it, is a hypertext. Whenever you click on a link which brings you to a new webpage, you have clicked on a hypertext. HyperText is a way to link two or more web pages (HTML documents) with each other.

Markup language: A markup language is a computer language that is used to apply layout and formatting conventions to a text document. Markup language makes text more interactive and dynamic. It can turn text into images, tables, links, etc.

Web Page: A web page is a document which is commonly written in HTML and translated by a web browser. A web page can be identified by entering an URL. A Web page can be of the static or dynamic type. With the help of HTML only, we can create static web pages.

Hence, HTML is a markup language which is used for creating attractive web pages with the help of styling, and which looks in a nice format on a web browser. An HTML document is made of many HTML tags and each HTML tag contains different content.

Brief History of HTML
In the late 1980's , a physicist, Tim Berners-Lee who was a contractor at CERN, proposed a system for CERN researchers. In 1989, he wrote a memo proposing an internet based hypertext system.

Tim Berners-Lee is known as the father of HTML. The first available description of HTML was a document called "HTML Tags" proposed by Tim in late 1991. The latest version of HTML is HTML5, which we will learn later in this tutorial.

A Simple HTML Document

<!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

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 (PC) or TextEdit (Mac).

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.

Windows 7 or earlier:

Open Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad


Step 1: Open TextEdit (Mac)

Open Finder > Applications > TextEdit

Also change some preferences to get the application to save files correctly. In Preferences > Format > choose "Plain Text"

Then under "Open and Save", check the box that says "Display HTML files as HTML code instead of formatted text".

Then open a new document to place the code.


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>

Notepad


 

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).

View in Browser

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:

View in Browser

HTML Basic Examples

In this chapter we will show some basic HTML examples.

Don't worry if we use tags you have not learned about yet.


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://www.test.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="test.jpg" alt="W3Schools.com" width="104" height="142">

How to View HTML Source

Have you ever seen a Web page and wondered "Hey! How did they do that?"

View HTML Source Code:

Right-click on 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.

HTML History

Since the early days of the World Wide Web, there have been many versions of HTML:

YearVersion
1989Tim Berners-Lee invented www
1991Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML
1993Dave Raggett drafted HTML+
1995HTML Working Group defined HTML 2.0
1997W3C Recommendation: HTML 3.2
1999W3C Recommendation: HTML 4.01
2000W3C Recommendation: XHTML 1.0
2008WHATWG HTML5 First Public Draft
2012WHATWG HTML5 Living Standard
2014W3C Recommendation: HTML5
2016W3C Candidate Recommendation: HTML 5.1
2017W3C Recommendation: HTML5.1 2nd Edition
2017W3C Recommendation: HTML5.2
Initial release1993; 29 years ago
Latest releaseLiving Standard; 2022
Container forHTML elements
Contained byWeb browser
 

Note: All information is collected online.

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