Did you know that people have been thinking about HTML since 1989? Decades later in 2020, it’s still widely in use.
If you’re a beginner trying to learn HTML 101, it helps to know that HTML is a language, not just a scrambled sequence of characters.
The good news is that you can learn the building blocks for the language and eventually learn to write it yourself.
1. HTML 101: What is it Anyway?
So what do the actual letters HTML stand for? They spell the term Hyper Text Markup Language. However, you can break down the phrase even further.
A Hypertext is any piece of digital text that transports the user to another location inside or outside of the current page. You’ve probably seen hypertext appear as those blue underlined words in an article, which look something like this.
Markup language is any symbol enclosed between angle brackets, also known as the greater-than or less-than symbols (< >).
The computer uses this language to process how text is displayed and presented on the page.
2. How to Use HTML
If you’re ready to start writing the first piece of code for your HTML page, there are lots of HTML editors to choose from. These programs give you a blank white space to write all your code.
Once you’ve chosen one, here are some basic steps to using HTML:
- Start typing <!DOCTYPE html> to tell the computer that you’re writing a document in HTML language.
- Use <head> to provide a space for your title. This section also contains the metadata, which provides information to help search engines locate your page.
- Type <body> to indicate where the main content of the page will sit. Your headers and paragraphs will go inside of the body tag. Their tags look like <h1> and <p>.
4. How to Use More HTML Features
Have you ever wondered how to make certain words bold or create a background color for your text?
Well, HTML elements can help you do that.
<h1> and <p> are just a couple examples of elements. They simply describe the nature of the text within the HTML outline. You can also have <b> which indicates bold text, or <mark>, which highlights the background of a text.
There’s a variety of elements you can use to make your page look more advanced.
Also, if you need to share your HTML page with others or send it to other locations, there’s a way to do both without officially publishing the page so that it’s searchable in browsers.
You can convert your HTML page to a PDF, which ultimately gives you a lot of flexibility with sharing or viewing files. To get started, you can view more info here.
How to Get Started With HTML 101
Now that you know the basic building blocks for HTML 101, you can speak the language and create your first page.
You don’t have to make it look amazing right away or get the most expensive software either.
The important thing is that you’re learning to harness a useful skill.
Want to learn another one? We’ve got a lot of other “How To” articles on our website that teach you skills in a variety of interests, so feel free to check them out!
