What is an HTML File?
- HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup
Language
- An HTML file is a text file containing small markup
tags
- The markup tags tell the Web browser how to
display the page
- An HTML file must have an htm or html
file extension
- An HTML file can be created using a simple text
editor
Do You Want to Try It?
If you are running Windows, start Notepad (or start
SimpleText if you are on a Mac) and type in the following
text:
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of page</title>
</head>
<body>
This is my first homepage. <b>This text is bold</b>
</body>
</html>
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Save the file as "mypage.htm".
Start your Internet browser. Select "Open"
(or "Open Page") in the File menu of your
browser. A dialog box will appear. Select "Browse"
(or "Choose File") and locate the HTML file
you just created - "mypage.htm" - select it
and click "Open". Now you should see an address
in the dialog box, for example "C:\MyDocuments\mypage.htm".
Click OK, and the browser will display the page.
Example Explained
The first tag in your HTML document is <html>.
This tag tells your browser that this is the start of
an HTML document. The last tag in your document is </html>.
This tag tells your browser that this is the end of
the HTML document.
The text between the <head> tag and the </head>
tag is header information. Header information is not
displayed in the browser window.
The text between the <title> tags is the title
of your document. The title is displayed in your browser's
caption.
The text between the <body> tags is the text
that will be displayed in your browser.
The text between the <b> and </b> tags
will be displayed in a bold font.
HTM or HTML Extension?
When you save an HTML file, you can use either the
.htm or the .html extension. We have used .htm in our
examples. It might be a bad habit inherited from the
past when some of the commonly used software only allowed
three letter extensions.
With newer software we think it will be perfectly safe
to use .html.
Note on HTML Editors:
You can easily edit HTML files using a WYSIWYG (what
you see is what you get) editor like FrontPage, Claris
Home Page, or Adobe PageMill instead of writing your
markup tags in a plain text file.
But if you want to be a skillful Web developer, we
strongly recommend that you use a plain text editor
to learn your primer HTML.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: After I have edited an HTML file, I cannot view
the result in my browser, why?
A: Make sure that you have saved the file with a
proper name and extension like "c:\mypage.htm".
Also make sure that you use the same name when you open
the file in your browser.
Q: I have tried to edit an HTML file but the changes
don't show in the browser. Why?
A: The browser caches your pages so it doesn't have
to read the same page twice. When you have changed a
page, the browser doesn't know that. Use the browsers
refresh/reload button to force the browser to read the
edited page.
Q: Can I use both Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator?
A: Yes, you can do all your training with both Netscape
3.0 or higher, and Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher.
However, a few of the examples in our advanced classes
assume you are running Internet Explorer 4.0 or 5.0,
because Netscape has bad support for newer Web standards.
Q: Does my computer have to run Windows, what about
a Mac?
A: You can do all your training on a non Windows
computer like a Mac. However, a few of the examples
in our higher classes assume that you are running a
newer version of Windows, like Windows 98 or Windows
2000
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