The users of the Internet prefer to view sites that are not only rich in content but an equally attractive visual interface and design. To create a site which has these features is not too difficult. Web pages are different from printed documents or books since they are based on hypertext links. Therefore web pages need to have more intuitive



For writingHTML, there are two possible ways, either you use a text editor or an HTML editor. There are a lot of programs in the software market to assist in writing HTML files. All you need to do is type in the document and mark the area where you want the tags inserted. By using these programs you don't really need to know the tag itself as the editor does the work for you. There are some word processors which convert a text document into a web page.

In situations where you have to convert existing text files into web documents these programs are very useful. But you have to be very carefull since a lot ofthese programs add their own tags and then to rectify that you need to go through the document in a text editor, like Notepad. This can be a very painstaking task.

While learning HTML, try to use a text editor like Notepad, Microsoft Write or Dos edit.. This will give you a good understanding of the HTML Tags.

BASIC ELEMENTS

HTML files are plain text files. Which means that they are programs and platform independent. HTML files are composed of elements. Elements in an HTML document include headings, titles, paragraphs and other features.

An element in this language is delimited, or set of, by tags. Most elements start with a tag that has single brackets around it. for example this is called start tag. Some elements often end with a tag such as which is called the end tag. The opening tag starts the effect that the tag is supposed to have on the text and the closing tag, indicated by the closes the effect. Thus the will make the text bold and when it encounters the effect will terminate.

There are some tags that do not have a beginning and an end. These are of two types empty and container.

Any element that has both a start tag and an end tag can carry contents between the tags. Such an element is called a container element. Container elements may have other elements nested inside them, and always have content within them. Elements than don't have an end tag are called empty elements. What is more important is to remember to put the angle brackets and the / where applicable. Since, a missing angle bracket or / can change the entire display of your web page. Usually HTML tags are written in uppercase, as they can be then easily distinguished from the content of the web page. pages must have clear and precise stuffs.