HTML ... What it is and what it isn't!

What it is

HTML is a document-layout and hyperlink-specification language. Using "tags" with the proper syntax and semantics, it defines the placement of special, embedded directions that are not displayed in the user's browser but tell the browser how to display the information correctly.

This language also tells the browser how to add interactivity through special hypertext links which connect documents together, on your websites or other remote ones on the Internet.

HTML is a rather young language that is constantly in a state of flux. The current standard is HTML 3.2 (special tags that allow for increased functionality). Most of this Basic Course deals with "older tags" and a simpler approach. Our Advanced Courses offer more information on the full benefits of the 3.2 standard.

HTML is not...

HTML is not a word processing tool, or a desktop publishing solution or even a "programming language".

Content and Appearance of Web Pages

HTML is designed to structure text documents to make the content more accessible not to "truly format" them for display purposes. (This will become very clear as you work your way through this course!)

HTML does allow you to define the appearance of your documents in terms of font style, size and colour as well as many other factors relating to image placement and how text interacts with same.

With HTML, content is king, appearance is secondary as different browsers can (an do) display this information in different ways. There are many "guidelines" but no "hard rules" to the use of tags and coding to make pages appear in one consistent manner across the Internet.

The goal of this Basic Course is to teach you how to make simple, yet effective web pages with the simplest amount of coding possible.