What is HTML?
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is simply a plain ASCII text file - that's it. This text file contains tags, which are always enclosed in <brackets>. Inside the brackets contain the commands. The smallest HTML is:
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE></HEAD><BODY></BODY></HTML>
Just think, every HTML Web Page you'll come across, began its life like that. Amazing eh?
The browser you're using, whether it be anything from Lynx to Microsoft Explorer, format these tags and output the finished product to what you see on your screen. Here's an example:
The Tag to center text in HTML is simply <CENTER>
Which would obviously cause this
The Tag I used for that example was the following text in this HTML:
<CENTER>Which would obviously cause this</CENTER>
The / (also known as slash, or forward slash) represents the end of the tag. Almost all tags have a beginning command, in this example, <CENTER>, and a closing tag, in this example, </CENTER>. Get the idea? Cool.
Back to the HTML Tutorial IndexHTML has and is a standard, meaning all browsers should format this standard to output the HTML code exactly the same. Some browsers have their own specific Tags to enhance the site look design, the "bgsound" is a good example, specific to Internet Explorer Browsers - not to Netscape. This has its pluses and minuses for very obvious reasons. The latest HTML standard is 3.2, which is already outdated as far as Netscape, Internet Explorer, and other Web Browsers are concerned. In fact, Internet Explorer is about to try and redo the whole HTML standard on it's own from the looks of it! HTML 3.0 and 3.2 (aka HTML+, HTML 3.0+, etc.) are the standards, but it seems to be getting stretched due to these companies, and in all likelihood will never become a *real* standard. This is mainly because larger companies are implementing more of their own "Browser Specific" HTML tags all the time. Like I said, this has its pluses and minuses, but it's ultimately up to you.