Basic HTML Tag Guide

By Anne Laidlaw

The following are brief explanations of the basic HTML tags used in this article:

<HTML></HTML> - tells browsers the page is written in HTML; entire document goes between HTML tags

<HEAD></HEAD> - appears just below the HTML tag in every HTML document; contains information about the document but does not appear on the Web page

<TITLE></TITLE> - specifies the title of the document; the text between these tags appears in the browser's title bar but not on the Web page itself

<BODY></BODY> - contains all the text and images that will appear on the Web page, together with all the HTML elements that provide the control/formatting of the page

BODY attributes:
BGCOLOR - designates the background color, using a name or a hex value
BACKGROUND - designates an image as a page's background (wallpaper)
TEXT - designates the text color, using a name or a hex value
LINK - designates the color of links, using a name or a hex value
VLINK - designates the color of followed links, using a name or a hex value
ALINK - designates the color of links on click, using a name or a hex value

<H1><H6></H1>-</H6> - codes text as headings; <H1> is the largest, <H6> the smallest

<CENTER></CENTER> - centers text and other elements on a page

<BR> - breaks text onto a new line (no vertical space between lines)

<P></P> - breaks text into a new paragraph (leaves a blank line above the new paragraph)

<I></I> - creates italicized text

<B></B> - creates bold text

<PRE></PRE> - designates preformatted text

<TT></TT> - designates teletype or monospaced text

<HR> - inserts a horizontal rule; helpful in breaking up sections of a page
<HR SIZE=x> - designates the size (height) of a rule
<HR WIDTH=x> - designates the width of a rule, in percentage or absolute value
<HR NOSHADE> - inserts a rule without a shadow

<A></A> - marks text as the start and/or destination of a link; requires the HREF or NAME attribute

HREF - attribute of the <A> tag; makes text or image between <A> tags a hyperlink

NAME - attribute of the <A> tag; makes text or image between <A> tags the target of a hyperlink

<IMG SRC="x"> - Adds an image

<UL></UL> - creates an unordered (bulleted) list

<OL></OL> - creates an ordered (numbered) list

<LI> - used in conjunction with the <UL> or <OL> tag, designates a list item in an unordered or ordered list

<DL></DL> - creates a definition list

<DT> - used in conjunction with the <DL> tag, designates a definition title in a definition list

<DD> - used in conjunction with the <DL> tag, designates a definition description in a definition list