HTML is a language for describing web pages. * HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language * HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language * A markup language is a set of markup tags * The markup tags describe how text should be displayed by a web browser HTML Markup Tags * HTML tags are markup codes surrounded by brackets like <html> * HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b> * The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag What is an HTML File? * An HTML file is a text file with markup tags * An HTML file must have an htm or html file extension * An HTML file can be created using a simple text editor * An HTML file is often called an HTML document or a web page When a browser displays a web page, it will not display the markup tags. The browser uses the markup tags to understand the layout of the page. An HTML Document <html> <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> <p>This is my <b>second</b> paragraph</p> </body> </html> Try it yourself Example Explained When a browser displays a web page, it will not display the markup tags. The text between the <html> and </html> tags describes a web page. The text between the <body> and </body> tags is displayed in the web browser. The text between the <p> and </p> tags is displayed as paragraphs. The text between the <b> and </b> tags is displayed in a bold font. Writing HTML In this tutorial we use a plain text editor (like Notepad) to edit HTML. This is a good way to learn HTML. However, professional web developers often prefer HTML editors like FrontPage or Dreamweaver, instead of writing plain text. In the next chapter of this tutorial, you will learn how to create a web site on your computer.