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What is HTML? Why use it?

© Dianne Reuby

What is HTML? Hyper Text Mark-up Language. Well, you did ask ... HTML is simply the code that's read by your browser, and converted into a web page. It's made up of "tags" - descriptive labels that pass information to the browser. For example the FONT tag tells the browser about the font that the webmaster wants to use - the typeface, colour, and size. Tags usually come in pairs, one to open an instruction, and one to close it.

HTML isn't as complex as programming. Browsers are much more forgiving - if you make a mistake in your code, a browser won't "crash". It will display what it "thinks" you're trying to do ... of course it may not be exactly what you planned! In fact, it may be completely wrong. Once you've learnt the basics, we'll look at programs that will check your HTML for errors.

Many people ask "Why can't I use a drag and drop site builder?" You can - but there are two main problems. These programs are known as "WYSIWYG" or "What you see is what you get". The trouble is, quite often it's "what you see is almost what you get". Trying to force these programs to produce the effect, layout or design that you really want can be hard work.

They often create code that is "bloated", full of unnecessary lines. Every extra line makes your page just that tiny bit slower to load - and all those fractions of a second add up! If you're using a fast connection such as broad-band, don't forget that in many parts of the world dial-up modems are still the most common. If your web site is for a business, a slow-loading page could cut you off from many potential customers.

Learning HTML can widen your scope - you can look at your code, and understand what it's doing. Making a change to your page will be much easier. Moving parts of your page around can sometimes simply be a matter of moving that section of code. You won't have a lot of extra code that isn't doing anything - and who wants to type more than they have to? So your pages will be quicker to load.

When you visit a site, and see an effect that you like, you can take a look at the code to see how it's done. Hey - I'm not suggesting you steal other webmasters' designs! But reading code from a wide range of sites, and learning from it, is a way to increase your knowledge of HTML and how it works.

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