HTML Basics

The Internet, if used correctly, can be a very useful tool for business. When the "world wide web" began, it was primarily used for transferring documents from campus to campus, or doctor to doctor, or both.

To format this information, a markup language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is used. In order for the language's formatting to be processed correctly, a web browser must be used to translate the code and arrange the page contents accordingly.

Below, you can see the standard "tags" that are used to tell a web browser that an otherwise normal text file contains this Hypertext Markup Language:

<html>
<head>
	<title>Page Title</title>
</head>

<body>


</body>
</html>

The above code can be copied and pasted into a blank text file. After pasting the contents, choose "Save File As" from the file menu, and type "test.html" in the space provided for the file name. If you open the file with a web browser, it will display a blank page. Try It!

The reason the page is blank is because you have not placed any content between the <body> </body> tags. Re-open the file with a text editor (notepad for Windows or simple text for Mac). Type in "hello there!" between the body tags and re-save the file. Open your browser back up and refresh the page. The text, "hello there!", should now appear on the page.

The next pages include additional HTML tags (usually opening <tag> and closing </tag>) which will help you modify the content on your web pages even further. This tutorial is intended to give you a general overview of the mentioned technologies and it is recommended that you purchase a book on HTML for a more in-depth overview of the language.

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