HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), is a text markup or scripting language that is currently used in the World Wide Web to create web pages. Hypertext is a piece of text that works as a link while markup language is a mode of writing the layout information in a document. When a document is created in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word, markup language is used by the program to indicate the formatting structure of the document.
HTML document at its basic level is a plain text file that contains only text and nothing else. However, when the browser opens the HTML document, it looks for codes within the text and makes use of them to change the layout, insert links, insert images or carry out any other command detailed by the codes. Due to the simplicity of a HTML file, it can be used on any text editor. Many people will however choose to use a special HTML editor for example a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that puts more focus on the visual appearance. Some HTML editors such as Dreamweaver and FrontPage allow you to create pages as you write your document in the text editor you are using. However, it may be important for you to create your pages or at the very least, parts of them by hand.
Perhaps it might interest you to know that you can create web pages even without prior knowledge of HTML besides the basic formatting on the page. This is all thanks to many excellent editors in the market that will do the HTML work. However, if you intend to make a mark in the web design world, it is important to be conversant with HTML tags. This is because the editor may not support every other function that tags will and also because you can be able to add or borrow some good effects from other people by the use of tags. The editor may also fail to give you exactly what you want leaving you with no other choice but to use tags.
HTML is easily written by hand on any text and all one needs to do is type the relevant code then save the document with .htm or .html extension. The codes are written in form of tags which are enclosed in the symbols < and >. There are opening and closing tags and what appears between the two tags is the instruction or command to be carried out for example for bold, the tag will be used while the whole code will appear as bold. is the opening tag in the code while is the closing tag. In addition to the opening and closing tags for commands, the whole document bears antag both at the beginning and at the end to instruct the browser on where the document starts and its end. Other tags that will appear in a document will be title tags denoting the title and also tags that denote the body of the document.