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← Introduction to HTML
●What is HTML?○Elements, Tags, and Attributes○Your First Complete Page
○Headings and Comments○Paragraphs, Emphasis, and Line Breaks○HTML Lists
○Hyperlinks○Images○Applying Styles to HTML
○Div and Span○HTML Tables○Classes and IDs
○Project 1 - Visiting Card Structure○Project 1 - Visiting Card Actions
○The Head Element and Page Title○Meta Tags○HTML Entities
○HTML Forms○Input Types○Checkboxes and Radio Buttons○Textarea and Select
○Embedding Video○Embedding Audio○Iframes
○Semantic HTML Tags○Details, Figure, and Figcaption
○Project 3 - Resume Semantic Structure○Project 3 - Resume Links and Actions
Introduction to HTML

What is HTML?

The World Wide Web is full of information written using different languages. One of the most popular languages used to display information in a browser is HTML — HyperText Markup Language.

HTML files are plain text files written with a specific syntax that tells browsers how to structure and display content. If you want to create a web page yourself, all you need is a text editor and a web browser.

HTML is not a programming language. It is a markup language — it structures content on the web, but it does not perform calculations or logic. Web pages are usually augmented by CSS (for styling) and JavaScript (for interactivity).

How browsers read HTML

When you open an HTML file in a browser, the browser reads the file from top to bottom, interprets the tags, and renders the content on screen. The browser takes care of layout, default fonts, and spacing — you just provide the structure.

Your first HTML file

The simplest possible HTML file is a plain text file with the .html extension:

html
Hello World

Save this as index.html and open it in a browser. You will see the text Hello World displayed. The browser happily shows it even though there are no HTML tags — it guesses what to do.

Now change the file to:

html
<h1>Hello World</h1>

Refresh the browser. The text is now displayed as a large, bold heading. The <h1> is an HTML tag — more on that in the next lesson.

A note on text editors

You can use any plain text editor:

  • VS Code (recommended) — free, cross-platform, excellent HTML support.
  • Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac) — simple but work fine.

Avoid Microsoft Word — it saves files in its own format and adds hidden formatting that browsers cannot read.

Next up

In the next lesson you will learn about elements, tags, and attributes — the three building blocks that make every HTML page work.