You
are now ready to learn the essence of HTML: elements.
Elements
give structure to a HTML document and tells the browser how you want your website
to be presented. Generally elements consists of a start tag, some content, and
an end tag.
"Tags"?
Tags
are labels you use to mark up the begining and end of an element.
All
tags have the same format: they begin with a less-than sign "<"
and end with a greater-than sign ">".
Generally
speaking, there are two kinds of tags - opening tags: <html> and closing
tags: </html>. The only difference between an opening tag and a closing
tag is the forward slash "/". You label content by putting it between
an opening tag and a closing tag.
HTML
is all about elements. To learn HTML is to learn and use different tags.
Can you show me some examples?
Okay,
the element em emphasis text. All text between the opening tag <em> and
the closing tag </em> is emphasised in the browser. ("em" is
short for "emphasis".)
Example 1:
Will
look like this in the browser:
The
elements h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 and h6 is used to make headings (h stands for
"heading"), where h1 is the first level and normally the largest
text, h2 is the second level and normally slightly smaller text, and h6 is the
sixth and last in the hierarchy of headings and normally the smallest text.
Example 2:
Will
look like this in the browser:
So, I always need an opening tag and a closing
tag?
As
they say, there's an exception to every rule and in HTML the exception is that
there are a few elements which both open and close in the same tag. These
so-called empty elements are not connected to a specific passage in the text
but rather are isolated labels, for example, a line break which looks like
this: <br />.
Should tags be typed in uppercase or lowercase?
Most
browsers might not care if you type your tags in upper, lower or mixed cases.
<HTML>, <html> or <HtMl> will normally give the same result.
However, the correct way is to type tags in lowercase. So get into the habit of
writing your tags in lowercase.
Where do I put all these tags?
You
type your tags in an HTML document. A website contains one or more HTML
documents. When you surf the Web, you merely open different HTML documents.
If
you continue to the next lesson in 10 minutes you will have made your first
website.
