Introduction to HTML

http://www.landofcode.com/html-tutorials/introduction-to-html.php

What you should already know

Learning HTML does not require existing knowledge of other computer languages, all you need is to be familiar with using a text editor, web browser, and accessing the internet. Yup, those are all the things you will need to learn HTML and build webpages with it!

What is HTML?

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and it is a language used to create webpages. There are many other web languages out there, but HTML is different. HTML is the core language of the world wide web, the fundamental building block of webpages. Without it, there are no webpages. It all starts with HTML - the simplest but the most important web language.

With HTML you make your own pages and decide what text, links, graphics, forms, as well as other elements will appear on them.

HTML is a markup language - a language that contains a set of tags (meaningful elements that describe or display data in some way). HTML is written using these tags to display content on webpages.

What HTML is NOT

HTML is a static language. This means that the content you display using HTML does not change, it is not dynamic. Things like popup boxes, moving images, and dynamically changing text CANNOT be done with HTML. HTML is used to place elements on a webpage, and that's it.

Dynamic content can be created with languages such as as Javascript,VBScript, and PHP. These languages are a bit advanced for a beginner so if you are new to the world of web development, please go through HTML first before moving on to them.

HTML is NOT used for styling. All the elements on a page are displayed with HTML but the styles for these elements (text color, background color, border color, etc.) are NOT set with HTML. For example, with HTML you set what text will appear on a page, but not the color and size of that text. To style the elements on a page, another language called CSS is used.

Web pages, the web, the internet, and you

Webpage uses

What is the use of a webpage? You might be thinking it's obvious - to show some information about something to people online. That's the fundamental use of web pages, but it gets more specific.

With webpages you can:

1.    Promote your business 
If you run a business and you're not selling things online already, than you are probably losing profit! Get your business online and let the world know about it with a webpage!

2.    Promote your self 
Whether you're a freelancer of some kind (graphic designer, writer, journalist, etc.) or want to keep an online journal (blog), a webpage is a great way to let the world know about yourself and what it is that you do.

3.    Review a product 
Did you buy a product and really like it? Does it have great features? Or maybe it really sucks? Whatever your feelings on a product, you can use a webpage to inform others about it.

The world wide web

This 'world wide web' everyone keeps talking about. What exactly does that term mean? A common misconception exists that the term 'world wide web' is a synonym for the internet. In reality, the world wide web is only a part of the internet.

Concept	Purpose
World wide web	The part of the internet by which webpages and the content on those webpages such as sounds and images are transferred to users who send requests for these resources. All this data (the data of a website) is stored on a special computer known as a web server. A user requests this data through their web browser, the web server gets the request, and sends it to the user's web browser
Internet	An abbreviation for 'internetwork', the global communications system which links together various computer networks around the world allowing for communication between devices and people on these networks. This global system, thisinternetwork, uses various different protocols to allow for the communication between devices and people on different networks. There are protocols for everything - the FTP protocol for remote file transfer, the SMTP protocol for email, and the HTTP protocol for the web.....

The HTTP protocol

HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfter Protocol. It is this protocol that is used to transfer data across the world wide web. Every time you enter a websites URL in your web browser (ex. www.yahoo.com), your web browser is making use of the HTTP protocol to send your request for a webpage (or any other web resource such as an image) and then transfers the data to you. The data for a website is stored on a computer called a web server.

The HTTPS protocol

While HTTP is used to transfer data across the world wide web, there is another protocol which works just as HTTP does, but adds a layer of security. This protocol is the HTTPS protocol. HTTPS stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is used to encrypt communication between a web browser and a web server. HTTPS is often used on websites that need to provide private communication such as online stores and membership sites. Next time you are making a purchase from an online store look at your web browsers address bar, the beginning part of it should say HTTPS.

How it all comes together

1.      Internet = An abbreviation for 'internetwork'. The global communications system which links together various computer networks around the world allowing for communication between devices and people on these networks.

2.    World wide web = The part of the internet by which webpages and the content on those webpages such as sounds and images are transferred to users who send requests for these resources

3.    HTML = Language used to create web pages

4.    HTTP and HTTPS protocols = Protocols by which data is transferred across the world wide web

5.    You = Web page author who uses HTML to create webpages that will be transferred across the world wide web on the internet through the HTTP and HTTPS protocols

File extensions

If you open a program on your computer, it will have a .exe extension (If you're using Windows), when you open a document created with Microsoft Word, it will have a .doc extension, and so on. This extension system is a way to organize files by type so you know how to work with each one.

Webpages you create with HTML are no exception to this rule and must have a specific extension - HTML documents have a file extension of .htm or .html

In the past, the .htm extension was used because of older operating systems which limited file extensions to three letters. Noawadays, the .html extension is mostly used.

Text editors

You are going to need two two things to create webpages and view them, the first of which is a text editor. You will use a basic text editor to write your HTML code.

The text editor you will be using (as a beginner) to build your pages is notepad. To access notepad, go to your Start menu -> Click on Run -> type notepad and press Enter. The notepad text editor should come up.

The other thing you will need is a web browser...

Web browsers

A web browser is a program used to view webpages (you're using a web browser right now!) The most popular web browser is Internet Explorer. Some other well known browsers include Firefox, Safari, Opera, andChrome.

Just as you view pages created by other people using a web browser, you will view pages that you create using a web browser as well.