HTML tags

The meaning of some common HTML tags is shown below:

Tag

Explanation

<HTML>...</HTML>

This tag tells the browser this file is an HTML document. </HTML> signifies the end of a document

<HEAD>...</HEAD>

Beginning of the header. The header can contain other additional material that is not to be displayed on the page. These can be comments and meta-tags provide information to browsers and search spiders about the document. </HEAD> signifies the end of the header.

<TITLE>...</TITLE>

This indicates the start of your page title, which is not displayed in the document. </TITLE> indicates the end of the title.

<BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF">...<\BODY>

Tells the browser that the body of the document starts here, and that the background is white. For a list of hexadecimal colors, go to: http://www.lynda.com/hexh.html. </BODY> indicates the end of the body of the document.

<CENTER>...</CENTER>

Centers the alignment of whatever is between <CENTER> and </CENTER> .

<IMG SRC="clouds.jpg" ALIGN="BOTTOM">

This tag inserts an image called "clouds.jpg" and aligns it with the bottom of any nearby text. Alignment options include "Middle", "Left" and "Right".

<a href="http://amazon.com">
Link Name</a>

This links the text "Link Name" to the URL in  quotes (http://amazon.com). If you click on the words "Link Name" in the browser, it will open the page at the URL.

<a href="mailto:
support@yourcompany.com"> support@yourcompany.com</a>

This opens a mail box when people click on the text between the tags, so people can email you from your webpage.  The TO: field will contain the address specified in the first tag.

<HR>

This inserts a Horizontal Rule, which is a horizontal line.

<H1>This is a Header</H1>

Headers can be created using tags <H1> through <H6>.

<H3>This is a Medium Header</H3>

This is a Medium Header.

<P>

This starts a new paragraph.

<B>...</B>

Text between these tags will be bold text.

<I>...</I>

Text between these tags will be italicized.

 

Note: Approximately 99% of all HTML tags need to be added in pairs. Notice that an <HTML> tag is located at the very beginning and the very end of the document. There are only a handful of tags that do not need this "pair" structure.