What is a Webpage? (What is HTML?)

A webpage is a file or document coded using a language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). It can be read using a browser (Netscape, Explorer, etc.).

When you use a wordprocessor, the file or document you produce has been coded by the program's language so as to produce a printed document of the kind you specify. Codes tell the printer where to start or  end lines and paragraphs, when columns, tables, or footnotes are needed, how the horizontal and vertical space of that 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper (or other specified size) should be used. Some of the codes in the wordprocessed document are likely to be [Just: left],  [Tab], [Ftnt1:], [Italic].

HTML is a code or  language originally designed so that scientists would have a quick and easy way to communicate their results instantly and accurately to each other. They needed to be able to post text, images, and tables--and to code the pages easily. HTML is in fact an easy language to learn and understand, and the web grew quite large in the period when all pages had to be coded "by hand" in a simple wordprocessing program.

The basic grammar of HTML is as follows:

        <code> a word or phrase within angle brackets is probably a code and will be hidden from the eyes of the viewer of the page.
        </code> most codes have to be turned off by repeating the word in angle brackets but with a / mark indicating "turn it off."
        For example:  <i> turns on italics; </i> turns them off. To start a new paragraph, the code is <p> but this code does not require a </p> to complement it.

An HTML document must have the extender .htm or .html after the filename, so that the browser or other program can tell what codes to expect and how to interpret them. In addition, it begins with the following code:

<html>
and ends with
</html>
The part of the document which the viewer will actually see as a webpage will begin with the code
<body>
--and end with
</body>
Between the <html> code and the <body> code there may be quite a few more codes: the page title (the words you see in white at the very top of the browser--on this page "What is HTML?") and the author, a choice of a background color or image, and other such notes which are not part of the main text.

To view the coding of this page, or any page, go to the "View" menu at the top of the screen and select "Page source." Examine the codes and compare them with what you see on the page.

I will not discuss  HTML in this tutorial, but it's worth your time to learn what it looks like and some of the basic codes. Knowing HTML is, today, like knowing the terms of grammar when speaking a language: it's not necessary but it's extremely helpful, especially if you want to improve your work.