Unit 6-3 How HTML Works

After completing this unit, you will be able to:

• Explain the concept of a markup language.
• Realize that different Web browsers may display the same HTML somewhat differently.
• Understand the two HTML tag formats.
• Define the families of HTML tags.
• Understand the HTML tags used in creating a résumé.
• Describe how HTML evolved and still is emerging.
• Understand the elements of a URL.

Reading

Read chapter 17 of the Internet Literacy textbook to study the concepts covered by this unit.

Online Activities

HTML is the markup language used to create hypertext documents for the World Wide Web. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. The key to understanding how HTML works is to know what it means to mark up a text. The following exercises will help you understand the concept of a markup language, defines the families of HTML tags, and identifies the tags that you will use in creating your Web page résumé.

• To mark up a text means to insert special codes called tags into the text. The tags control how the text appears on a Web page. If you pull down your Browser's View menu and choose Page Source, you will see how the text you are reading now got marked up so it would flow well onto this Web page. Notice all of the codes inside brackets. Those are the HTML codes.
• Chapter 17 contains a taxonomy of HTML tags. You should study that taxonomy carefully to familiarize yourself with the different kinds of tags you can use. You need not memorize these tags, because you will be using a graphical Web page creation tool that inserts the tags for you. You need to be somewhat familiar with the tags, however, so you will understand what the Web page creation tool is doing for you.
• The World Wide Web is an emerging technology, and new HTML tags get invented constantly. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the standards body that officially registers new features into HTML. All of the major computing vendors and network companies belong to the W3C. To learn more about the consortium, follow the Interlit Web site links to W3C.