In this chapter we will show some basic HTML examples.
Don’t worry if we use tags you have not learned about yet.
HTML Documents
All HTML documents must start with a document type declaration: <!DOCTYPE html>.
The HTML document itself begins with <html> and ends with </html>.
The visible part of the HTML document is between <body> and </body>.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Result:
My First Heading
My first paragraph.
The <!DOCTYPE> Declaration
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration represents the document type, and helps browsers to display web pages correctly.
It must only appear once, at the top of the page (before any HTML tags).
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration is not case sensitive.
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration for HTML5 is:
<!DOCTYPE html>
HTML Headings
HTML headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags.
<h1> defines the most important heading. <h6> defines the least important heading:
<html>
<body>
<h1>This is heading 1</h1>
<h2>This is heading 2</h2>
<h3>This is heading 3</h3>
<h4>This is heading 4</h4>
<h5> This is heading 5</h5>
<h6> This is heading 6</h6>
</body>
</html>
Result:
This is heading 1
This is heading 2
This is heading 3
This is heading 4
This is heading 5
This is heading 6
HTML Paragraphs
HTML paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag:
<html>
<body>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Result:
This is a paragraph.
This is another paragraph.
HTML Links
HTML links are defined with the <a> tag:
<html>
<body>
<h1>HTML Links</h1>
<p>HTML links are defined with the a tag:</p>
<a href=”http://help.rerfindia.org/“>This is a link</a>
</body>
</html>
Result:
HTML Links
HTML links are defined with the a tag:
This is a link
The link’s destination is specified in the href attribute.
Attributes are used to provide additional information about HTML elements.
You will learn more about attributes in a later chapter.
HTML Images
HTML images are defined with the <img> tag.
The source file (src), alternative text (alt), width, and height are provided as attributes:
<html>
<body>
<h1> HTML Images</h1>
<p>HTML images are defined with the img tag:</p>
<img src=”forest.jpg” alt=”forest” width=”104″ height=”142″>
</body>
</html>
Result:
How to View HTML Source?
Have you ever seen a Web page and wondered “Hey! How did they do that?”
View HTML Source Code:
Right-click in an HTML page and select “View Page Source” (in Chrome) or “View Source” (in Edge), or similar in other browsers. This will open a window containing the HTML source code of the page.
Inspect an HTML Element:
Right-click on an element (or a blank area), and choose “Inspect” or “Inspect Element” to see what elements are made up of (you will see both the HTML and the CSS). You can also edit the HTML or CSS on-the-fly in the Elements or Styles panel that opens.
HTML Elements
The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:<tagname>Content goes here…</tagname>
Examples of some HTML elements:<h1>My First Heading</h1><p>My first paragraph.</p>
| Start tag | Element content | End tag |
|---|---|---|
| <h1> | My First Heading | </h1> |
| <p> | My first paragraph. | </p> |
| <br> | none | none |
Nested HTML Elements
HTML elements can be nested (this means that elements can contain other elements).
All HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.
The following example contains four HTML elements (<html>, <body>, <h1> and <p>):
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading </h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Result:
My First Heading
My first paragraph.
Example Explained
The <html> element is the root element and it defines the whole HTML document.
It has a start tag <html> and an end tag </html>.
Then, inside the <html> element there is a <body> element:
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
The <body> element defines the document’s body.
It has a start tag <body> and an end tag </body>.
Then, inside the <body> element there are two other elements: <h1> and <p>:
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
The <h1> element defines a heading.
It has a start tag <h1> and an end tag </h1>:
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
The <p> element defines a paragraph.
It has a start tag <p> and an end tag </p>:
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
Never Skip the End Tag
Some HTML elements will display correctly, even if you forget the end tag:
Example
<html>
<body>
<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is a paragraph
</body>
</html>
Result:
This is a paragraph.
This is a paragraph.
However, never rely on this! Unexpected results and errors may occur if you forget the end tag!
Empty HTML Elements
HTML elements with no content are called empty elements.
The <br> tag defines a line break, and is an empty element without a closing tag:
Example
<html>
<body>
<p>This is a <br> paragraph with a line break.</p>
</body>
</html>
Result:
This is a
paragraph with a line break.
HTML is Not Case Sensitive
HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>.
The HTML standard does not require lowercase tags, but W3C recommends lowercase in HTML, and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.