What are HTML tags?

[gilbertsavier]

Hi,
When a web browser displays a page such as the one you are reading now, it reads from a plain text file, and looks for special codes or "tags" that are marked by the < and > signs. The general format for a HTML tag is:

<tag_name>string of text</tag_name>

As an example, the title for this section uses a header tag:

<h3>What are HTML tags?</h3>

This tag tells a web browser to display the text What are HTML tags? in the style of header level 3 (We'll learn more about these tags later). HTML tags may tell a web browser to bold the text, italicize it, make it into a header, or make it be a hypertext link to another web page. It is important to note that the ending tag,

</tag_name>

contains the "/" slash character. This "/" slash tells a web browser to stop tagging the text. Many HTML tags are paired this way. If you forget the slash, a web browser will continue the tag for the rest of the text in your document, producing undesirable results (as an experiment you may want to try this later).

NOTE: A web browser does not care if you use upper or lower case. For example, <h3>...</h3> is no different from <H3>...</H3>

Unlike computer programming, if you make a typographical error in HTML you will not get a "bomb" or "crash" the system; your web page will simply look, well... wrong. It is quick and easy to go inside the HTML and make the changes.

Your browser has a small but open vocabulary! An interesting aspect of HTML is that if the browser does not know what to do with a given tag, it will ignore it! For example, in this document you are viewing, the header tag for this section really looks like this:

<wiggle><h3>What are HTML tags?</h3></wiggle>

but since your browser probably does not support a <wiggle> tag (I made it up, perhaps in the future it could cause the text to wave across the screen?), it proceeds with what it knows how to do. If I were programming a new web browser, I might decide to add the functionality for the <wiggle> tag into my software.

[alibaba-clone]

good.. will be helpful for beginners.. as html is the key basic thing to start learing website design and development.

[promotor]

Hypertext Markup Language tags are part of the language that powers web pages and delivers instruction to your web browser to display the page information in more than just plain text. example: <B>Position Masters</B> (turns text into bold).

[stocktrading]

Tags are building blocks of html code of the webpage
it specifies the objects and the nature an functionality of the in the webpage through attributes which contain vaues
for reference see w3schools

Tags are building blocks of html code of the webpage
it specifies the objects and the nature an functionality of the in the webpage through attributes which contain vaues
for reference see w3schools

[Nearly]

Although this is somewhat accurate and basic, you might want to include self-closing tags, for example this:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css" />

is not closed by adding </link>, it is closed by the slash before the final >

[robotg]

as html is the key basic thing to start learing website design and development . thanks for your sharing. it is useful

[divebluer]

CMIIW
the latest information i've heard so far is in firefox version 3.6 u can have html5 tag so u can bring the video into your without the adobe flash player plugin anymore

[alibaba-clone]

but this cannot be a good idea to put html5 tag, because it will be workable for firefox only.. and the great number of users also using IE and chrome nowdays.. i love the chrome browser, its too light weight and fast..

[m2hmonique]

Hello,

html (HyperText Markup Language) is the key basic thing to start learing website design and development .

[zoomactive.com]

some good info for beginners thanks for the post!