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Aug 25, 2023

What Is HTML? Hypertext Markup Language Basics Explained

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language . It is a standard markup language for web page creation. It allows the creation and structure of sections, paragraphs, and links using HTML elements (the building blocks of a web page) such as tags and attributes. 

HTML has a lot of use cases, namely:

• Web development . Developers use HTML code to design how a browser displays web page elements, such as text, hyperlinks, and media files. 
• Internet navigation . Users can easily navigate and insert links between related pages and websites as HTML is heavily used to embed hyperlinks. 
• Web documentation . HTML makes it possible to organize and format documents, similarly to Microsoft Word.

It’s also worth noting that HTML is not considered a programming language as it can’t create dynamic functionality, although it is now considered an official web standard. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) maintains and develops HTML specifications, along with providing regular updates. 

This article will go over the basics of HTML, including how it works, its pros and cons, and how it relates to CSS and JavaScript. 

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HTML Explained in a Video Tutorial

Check out our video tutorial to understand HTML better.

How Does HTML Work

The average website includes several different HTML pages. For instance, a home page, an about page, and a contact page would all have separate HTML files.

HTML documents are files that end with a .html or .htm extension. A web browser reads the HTML file and renders its content so that internet users can view it.

All HTML pages have a series of HTML elements, consisting of a set of tags and attributes. HTML elements are the building blocks of a web page. A tag tells the web browser where an element begins and ends, whereas an attribute describes the characteristics of an element. 

The three main parts of an element are: 

• Opening tag – used to state where an element starts to take effect. The tag is wrapped with opening and closing angle brackets. For example, use the start tag <p> to create a paragraph. 
• Content – this is the output that other users see. 
• Closing tag – the same as the opening tag, but with a forward slash before the element name. For example, </p> to end a paragraph. 

The combination of these three parts will create an HTML element:

Another critical part of an HTML element is its attribute, which has two sections – a name and attribute value. The name identifies the additional information that a user wants to add, while the attribute value gives further specifications. 

For example, a style element adding the color purple and the font-family verdana will look like this:

Another attribute, the HTML class, is most important for development and programming. The class attribute adds style information that can work on different elements with the same class value. 

For example, we will use the same style for a heading <h1> and a paragraph <p> . The style includes background color, text color, border, margin, and padding, under the class .important. To achieve the same style between <h1> and <p> , add class="important" after each start tag: 

Most elements have an opening and a closing tag, but some elements do not need closing tags to work, such as empty elements. These elements do not use an end tag because they do not have content:

This image tag has two attributes – an src attribute, the image path, and an alt attribute, the descriptive text. However, it does not have content nor an end tag. 

Lastly, every HTML document must start with a <!DOCTYPE> declaration to inform the web browser about the document type. With HTML5, the doctype HTML public declaration will be:

Most Used HTML Tags and HTML Elements

Currently, there are 142 HTML tags available that allow for the creation of various elements . Even though modern browsers no longer support some of these tags, learning all the different elements available is still beneficial. 

This section will discuss the most-used HTML tags and two main elements – block-level elements and inline elements. 

Block-Level Elements

A block-level element takes up the entire width of a page. It always starts a new line in the document. For example, a heading element will be in a separate line from a paragraph element.

Every HTML page uses these three tags:

• <html> tag is the root element that defines the whole HTML document.
• <head> tag holds meta information such as the page’s title and charset.
• <body> tag encloses all the content that appears on the page.

Other popular block-level tags include:

• Heading tags – these range from <h1> to <h6> , where heading h1 is largest in size, getting smaller as they move up to h6. 
• Paragraph tags – are all enclosed by using the <p> tag.
• List tags – have different variations. Use the <ol> tag for an ordered list, and use <ul> for an unordered list. Then, enclose individual list items using the <li> tag. 

Inline Elements

An inline element formats the inner content of block-level elements, such as adding links and emphasized strings. Inline elements are most commonly used to format text without breaking the flow of the content. 

For example, a <strong> tag would render an element in bold, whereas the <em> tag would show it in italics. Hyperlinks are also inline elements that use an <a> tag and an href attribute to indicate the link’s destination:

HTML Evolution – What Differs Between HTML and HTML5?

The first version of HTML consisted of 18 tags. Since then, each new version came with new tags and attributes added to the markup. The most significant upgrade of the language so far was the introduction of HTML5 in 2014. 

The main difference between HTML and HTML5 is that HTML5 supports new kinds of form controls. HTML5 also introduced several semantic tags that clearly describe the content, such as <article> , <header> , and <footer> . 

Pros and Cons of HTML

Just like any other computer language, HTML has its strengths and limitations. Here are the pros and cons of HTML:

• Beginner-friendly. HTML has a clean and consistent markup, as well as a shallow learning curve.
• Support. The language is widely used, with a lot of resources and a large community behind it.
• Accessible. It is open-source and completely free. HTML runs natively in all web browsers.
• Flexible. HTML is easily integrable with backend languages such as PHP and Node.js .
• Static. The language is primarily used for static websites . For dynamic functionality, you may need to use JavaScript or a back-end language such as PHP.
• Separate HTML page. Users have to create individual web pages for HTML, even if the elements are the same. 
• Browser compatibility. Some browsers adopt new features slowly. Sometimes older browsers don’t always render newer tags.

How Are HTML, CSS, and Javascript Related

HTML is used to add text elements and create the structure of content. However, it is not enough to build a professional and fully responsive website. So, HTML needs the help of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript to create the vast majority of website content. 

CSS is responsible for stylings such as background, colors, layouts, spacing, and animations. On the other hand, JavaScript adds dynamic functionality such as sliders, pop-ups, and photo galleries. These three languages are the fundamentals of front-end development.

Understanding HTML and Improving Your HTML Knowledge

Learning about HTML is a great first step for those interested in web development . 

There are plenty of courses available online to learn to code , but we have listed three of the best tutorial databases for HTML:

• W3Schools – has resources, examples, and exercises to help learn basic HTML for free. There is also a self-paced HTML tutorial that costs $95 and provides an official certificate. 
• Codecademy – offers introductory courses for free with interactive tutorials. Codecademy uses a split-screen that will automatically show the result of your coding on an HTML file. There is exclusive content available for $19.99/month .
• Coursera – offers various courses that provide in-depth explanations with real-life examples. The subscription price is $49/month , and there is a 7-day free trial to start. 

HTML is the primary markup language found on the internet. Every HTML page has a series of elements that create the content structure of a web page or application. 

HTML is a beginner-friendly language with plenty of support and is mainly used for static website pages. HTML works best together with CSS for styling and JavaScript for functionality. You can check out how to link CSS and HTML on our blog.

We have also shown you some of the top courses available online that will either help to improve your knowledge of HTML or provide a basic understanding of it.

Let us know in the comment section if you have any other favorite resources to learn HTML with. Good luck.

What Is HTML FAQ

What is html used for.

Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, is a programming language used to describe the structure of web pages. HTML makes it possible to create static pages with text, headings, tables, lists, images, links, and so on.

How Does HTML Work?

Being text-based, HTML tells the browser how to display all the various page elements like text, images and other multimedia, on an individual web page.

Is HTML Easy to Learn?

Yes – it’s probably the easiest front-end programming language you could learn. With plenty of free online resources and tools available, it’s a relatively quick language to learn, too.

Which Type of Language Is HTML?

HTML is a markup coding language. It sorts through data that’s been categorized with HTML tags, making it possible to define it and describe its purpose on a web page. HTML tells a web browser essentially what different page elements are and where they should go when loading the page.

Astari is a digital marketing expert, with a focus on SEO and WordPress. She loves to share her wealth of knowledge through her writing, and enjoys surfing the internet for new information when she's not out in the waves or hiking a mountain. Her mission is to learn something new every day, and she firmly believes that there is no such thing as too much knowledge.

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What our customers say

October 17 2019

i love this cause i did not know what it was thanks for your help

November 06 2020

November 27 2020

How to make website and web page

February 09 2021

Hi there! First, I'd suggest to choose if you'll be designing using HTML or some CMS. You'll find our articles about it here and here . If you do decide to use HTML, you'd simply need to create HTML files in your public_html folder and add the necessary code there. Follow this article to guide you through the whole process of designing a website!

December 09 2020

Thank you sir for this help but you should proceed with java script

Hi there! There are some pros and cons for each - it really depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a more detailed comparison, check out here :)

April 13 2021

what is HTML and what is XML

April 26 2021

Hiya! XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language whereas HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. XML focuses more on the transfer of data while HTML focuses on the presentation of the data.

April 18 2021

September 08 2021

That was an amazing article, your article gave me more clarity about HTML. It was nice to read your article.

September 20 2021

Happy it helped!

January 02 2022

January 09 2022

well explained about HTML.

April 24 2022

I'm grateful to meet a such helpful course like this, especially for a beginner like me I'm very grateful .

April 25 2022

Happy to hear :)

Pls you can help me

Hi there! How can I help?

August 17 2022

how can I write in HTML language and how do I know HTML if I see one

August 19 2022

Hey! You can actually write in HTML in Notepad if you use Windows and TextEdit for Mac. As for how to identify it, HTML differs from other programming languages in that it is not a programming language. It is a type of markup language. That is HTML's ML. It exists to describe a document's format. The most significant change in HTML5 was the addition of custom named attributes and data tags, which made it easier to make HTML descriptive, such as: ?

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Advantages and Disadvantages of HTML

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Hypertext markup language (HTML) is a Hypertext markup language, the standard markup language for documents designed to displayed and viewed on the online during a browser also helps to create the structure of the web page. because it is a markup language, it consists of many tags. There are tags to display text, tables, ordered lists and unordered lists, etc. There are two main sections on the HTML page: head and body section. The data that describes the page also termed as metadata is inside the head section while the body section includes all the tags that are necessary to represent the visible content of the web page HTML is a platform-independent language so that can be made in use in any platform like Windows, Linux, Macintosh, etc. 

There are various HTML versions. The newest version is HTML 5. it’s more advanced features like Geo-location, native audio, and video support, Canvas, web socket, etc. Usually, HTML is a simple language to find out and use. A programmer can create an HTML file employing a simple text editor and execute it employing a browser. 

Advantages :    

• HTML helps to build structure of a website and is a widely used Markup language.
• It is easy to learn.
• Every browser supports HTML Language.
• HTML is light weighted and fast to load.
• Storage of big files are allowed because of the application cache feature.
• Do not get to purchase any extra software because it’s by default in every window.
• Loose syntax (although, being too flexible won’t suit standards).
• HTML is simple to edit as being a plain text.
• It integrates easily with other languages such as JavaScript, CSS etc.
• HTML is that it is easy to code even for novice programmers.
• HTML also allows the utilization of templates, which makes designing a webpage easy.
• It is fast to download as the text is compressible.
• Very useful for beginners in the web designing field.
• HTML can be supported to each and every browser, if not supported to all the browsers.
• HTML is built on almost every website, if not all websites.
• HTML is increasingly used for data storage as like XML syntax.
• HTML has many tag and attributes which can short your line of code.

Disadvantages :    

• It cannot produce dynamic output alone, since it’s a static language.
• Making the structure of HTML documents becomes tough to understand.
• Errors can be costly.
• It is the time consuming as the time it consume to maintain on the color scheme of a page and to make lists, tables and forms.
• We need to write a lot of code for just creating a simple webpage.
• We have to check up the deprecated tags and confirm not to use them to appear because another language that works with HTML has replaced the first work of the tag, and hence the opposite language needs to be understood and learned.
• Security features offered by HTML are limited.
• If we need to write down long code for creating a webpage then it produces some complexity.
• HTML can create only static and plain pages so if we’d like dynamic pages then HTML isn’t useful.
• Editing of web page need to be done separately , they are not centralized.

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First developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 , HTML is short for hypertext markup language . HTML creates electronic documents (called web pages ) that are displayed on the World Wide Web . Each page contains several connections to other pages called hyperlinks . Every web page you see was written using one version of HTML.

HTML code ensures the proper formatting of text and images for your Internet browser . Without HTML, a browser would not know how to display text as elements or load images or other elements. HTML also provides a basic structure of the page, upon which CSS (cascading style sheets) are overlaid to change its appearance. One could think of HTML as the bones (structure) of a web page, and CSS as its skin (appearance).

HTML was featured as a top term of 1991 .

What does an HTML tag look like?

What does html look like, what is html5, what does html5 look like.

• How to create and view HTML.

Which file extensions are used with HTML?

Is html case-sensitive, is html a programming language.

• How to pronounce HTML.
• Related information.
• HTML and web design help and support.

As shown in the HTML tag example above, there aren't many components. Most HTML tags have an opening tag containing the tag name, tag attributes , a closing tag containing a forward slash , and the tag name being closed. For tags that do not have a closing tag like <img> , it is best practice to end the tag with a forward slash.

Most tags are contained in a less than and greater than angle brackets, and everything between the open and close tag is displayed or affected by the tag. In the example above, the <a> tag is creating a link called "Computer Hope" that is pointing to the hope.html file.

See our HTML and Web Design help page for a full listing of HTML tags.

Below is an example of a basic web page written in HTML with a description of each section and its function.

The box above contains the key ingredients to a basic web page. Each of the lines are explained below in further detail.

• The DOCTYPE line describes what version of HTML the page was written in so that an Internet browser can interpret the text that follows.
• The <html> opening tag lets the browser know that it is reading HTML code.
• The <head> section contains information about the page, such as its title , meta tags , and where to locate the CSS file.
• The <body> section contains everything that's viewable on the browser. For example, all the text seen here is contained in the body tags.
• The <h1> tag is the visible heading of the page.
• The <p> tag is a paragraph of text. Most web pages (like this one) have several paragraph tags.
• Contained in the paragraph is the <b> tag that bolds the word example in the paragraph.
• Finally, the closing tags wrap each of the above tags.
• See our HTML and Web Design help for a full listing of HTML tags.

HTML5 is the update made to HTML from HTML4 ( XHTML follows a different version numbering scheme). It uses the same basic rules as HTML4, but adds some new tags and attributes which allow for better semantics and for dynamic elements that are activated using JavaScript . New elements include: <article> , <aside> , <audio> , <bdi> , <canvas> , <datalist> , <details> , <embed> , <figure> , <figcaption> , <footer> , <header> , <keygen> , <mark> , <meter> , <nav> , <output> , <progress> , <rp> , <rt> , <ruby> , <time> , <track> , <video> , and <wbr> . There are also new input types for forms , which include tel, search, url, e-mail, datetime, date, month, week, time, datetime-local, number, range, and color.

With the increasing movement to keep structure and style separate, some styling elements were removed. Also tags with accessibility issues or saw little use were also removed. These following elements should no longer be used in HTML code: <acronym> , <applet> , <basefont> , <big> , <center> , <dir> , <font> , <frame> , <frameset> , <noframes> , <strike> , and <tt> . HTML5 also simplifies the doctype declaration to the tag in the following box.

HTML5 was featured as a top term of 2013 .

As shown below, the HTML5 code is similar to the earlier HTML4 example, but is cleaner and has a revised doctype tag .

How to create and view HTML

Because HTML is a markup language, it can be created and viewed in any text editor if saved with a .htm or .html file extension . However, most find it easier to design and create web pages in HTML using an HTML editor .

Once the HTML file is created, it can be viewed locally or uploaded to a web server to be viewed online using a browser .

HTML files use either the .htm or .html file extension . Older versions of Windows (Windows 3.x) only allow three-letter file extensions, so they used .htm instead of .html. However, both file extensions have the same meaning, and either may be used today. That said, we recommend sticking to one naming convention as certain web servers may prefer one extension over the other.

Web pages that are created using a scripting language like Perl , PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), or Python have a different extension even though they only show HTML in the source code.

The HTML tags and most attributes are not case-sensitive . However there are attribute values and portions of HTML that are case-sensitive. For example, when entering a file name , if the operating system (e.g., Linux ) is case-sensitive, the directories and file names must be typed in the proper case. Other sections of HTML that are case-sensitive are with an HTML entity . For example, "&aacute" creates a lowercase "a" with an acute accent and "&Aacute" creates an uppercase version.

We recommend doing everything in HTML as lowercase, unless a file name or directory in a path is in uppercase.

No. HTML is not a programming language; it's a markup language. See our markup language page for a comparison between a programming language and a markup language.

How to pronounce HTML

HTML is pronounced as h-t-m-l ( aitch-tee-em-el ).

Because of the vowel sound when pronouncing HTML, you would use "an" instead of "a" in front of the abbreviation in your writing.

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Is HTML a Programming Language? Essay

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Introduction

Why html cannot be called a programming language, why html can be called a programming language.

Behind the development of modern technology, there are simple things such as software which also has to be developed. HTML states for HyperText Markup Language and is mainly used for creating and designing electronic pages, which are, in fact, documents. Some people claim that HTML is not a programming language. At the same time, there is an opinion that HTML is suitable for programming and is not worse than any other language. Due to the controversy of points of view on this issue, both opinions are discussed below.

Concerning the point of view that HTML is not a programming language, many amateurs express their accordance with this opinion on the Internet. However, speaking of experts claim that HTML does not comply with specific criteria that evaluate the software. For example, Newmarch (2017) states that HTML is a simple language and can “be edited by hand,” leading to the incorrectness of many documents (p. 189). Hence, many pages do not “follow the syntax of the language,” creating a wide variety of “illegal documents” (Newmarch, 2017, p. 189). Such inaccuracy with the rules contradicts the common perception of using a programming language.

The second argument is related to the capacity of HTML as an instrument of programming. There is an issue that distinguishes HTML from other programming languages and complexifies its use. Newmarch (2017) reckons that the main feature of programming languages is that they can process data and make decisions based on it. HTML is not suitable for operations connected with making decisions – it cannot provide an opportunity for alphabetical sorting of the text or similar ones.

The final and the most potent argument considers the potential of HTML. Reprintsev (2018) reckons that it is essential for a programming language to be Turing complete. This means that “your model of computations can execute any algorithm no matter how complex it is… and how much storage or time would be needed to evaluate it” (Reprintsev, 2018, p. 235). Therefore, being Turing complete means being reliable and relevant for a programming language. HTML is not Turing complete, so it cannot be called fully effective.

On the other hand, there are people whose opinion is for HTML to be considered a programming language. Firstly, they claim that HTML has the structural features of a language, such as a syntax and semantics. Leinonen et al. state that “when learning to program, students learn the syntax of a programming language, the semantics underlying the syntax, and practice” (2019, p. 1). Thus, these essential parts are fundamental for software, and any language that has them can be called a programming language.

Secondly, HTML can be concerned as a programming language based on a definition of a programming language. Ernst (2017) claims that a programming language or software is “a sequence of instructions that perform some task” (p. 1). This definition is commonly assumed to be confirmed by the programming community Ernst reckons (2017). Therefore, HTML suits the requirements and can easily be perceived as software because it provides declarative instructions to a computer.

Thirdly, HTML can be referred to as a programming language because it is a markup language, which is reflected in its name. Being a markup language means providing opportunities related to designing and creating documents (or web pages), which is a significant part of a whole programming process (Turner, 2018). Consequently, HTML can be considered a programming language because it contributes to the programming process by performing essential tasks.

Overall, the opinions on the compliance of HTML to programming languages vary drastically. Although both sides provide relevant arguments supporting their points of view, there does not seem to be a logical solution to this issue. However, HTML is widely used; its functionality suits the particular needs of the programmers, and websites created with the help of HTML account for the majority of pages on the Internet. Hence, its practical use is more substantial and compelling than theoretical classification.

Ernst, M. D. (2017). Natural language is a programming language: Applying natural language processing to software development. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, 4, 1–14. Web.

Newmarch, J. (2017). Network programming with Go . Apress Media. Web.

Reprintsev, A. (2018). Oracle SQL revealed . Apress Media. Web.

Turner, R. (2018). The design of programming languages. Computational Artifacts , 161–167. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, October 30). Is HTML a Programming Language? https://ivypanda.com/essays/is-html-a-programming-language/

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7 reasons why you’ll be glad you learned HTML

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Wondering if you should learn HTML? If you’re interested in designing websites, the answer’s a resounding yes! HTML is one of the cornerstones of web development , as developers use i t to structure a website’s content. Essentially, it’s the code that dictates where all the website elements are and how they appear to the user.

Still, learning HTML can be valuable even if you aren’t pursuing a career in web development. Below, we’ll explore the benefits of learning HTML to help you decide if it’s right for you.

7 benefits of learning HTML

As you’ll see, there are many benefits to learning HTML, and they extend far beyond becoming a web developer. Still, web developers are in high demand, and HTML is a great skill to have in your tool belt if you decide to look for a new job in the future.

1. HTML can help you build your own unique website

There are plenty of beautiful website templates on sites that let you build your own, using elements and an easy-to-use drag-and-drop system. But, if your goal is to have a website that stands out from the crowd, you’re going to be glad you learned HTML.

HTML allows you to customize your website or build your theme from scratch. It also allows you to create and organize the elements of your website, like images, text, tables, or forms.

2. You’ll no longer have to wait for your IT team

Do you have to reach out to your IT team any time there’s a typo on your company’s website or newsletter? If so, you might have found that it took a while for them to get your request as they’re often busy with other projects.

With HTML, you could spearhead these improvements and fix errors as you find them. It’s also a great way to impress your boss, as they’ll likely be thrilled to hear that you learned a new skill and took the initiative to help the company.

3. HTML helps you understand how to make things more accessible

Semantic HTML tags form the basis for good accessibility practices, as they allow screen readers to determine where different elements are on a web page and how they’re formatted.

Learning how to make your website accessible is crucial. Not only does it help maximize your audience, but it’ll also help demonstrate that your company values inclusivity. In another post, we take a closer look at why accessibility is so important .

4. Knowing HTML helps you collaborate more effectively with technical teams

If you’re a project manager, copywriter, or instructional designer, you likely work with developers quite often. Learning HTML is a great step if you’re looking to collaborate more effectively with your technical teammates.

Basically, being familiar with HTML helps ensure that you and your technical teammates are on the same page. This helps save time and streamline communications as you’ll have a better understanding of what it’d require to implement your new ideas.

5. Your designs can shine with HTML

Maybe your skills and desired career lie more on the design side of website development. If you want to showcase how your graphics or layouts might look for a client, knowing a little HTML will help.

You don’t need to be a pro to put HTML to good use. Even with just the basics, you can create mock-up designs to illustrate your ideas to your clients. This will also help you save time you’d otherwise spend editing your design, as you’ll be able to get feedback on your project sooner.

6. HTML skills will open up more income-generating opportunities

As you can see, HTML is a valuable skill — even for non-technical professionals. Still, it’s also a great choice if you’re looking to switch careers or venture into freelance development. Front-end engineers are highly in demand, and HTML is a core component of their skillset, so you’ll want to learn it if you’re considering entering the field.

7. HTML can help you to learn other coding languages easier

Learning how to code can be difficult. When you’re just starting out, it’s easy to get intimidated by complicated syntax and various functions and methods. For many, it helps to start with a programming language that’s relatively easy to learn. Stetim94, a volunteer moderator on our forums , explains:

“The advantage of HTML and CSS is that they are relatively easy to learn, and you will see quick progress. So that certainly helps.”

Once you start learning HTML and using it to build your own websites, you’ll see that coding doesn’t have to be hard. You might even feel confident enough to start learning other languages.

Where can I learn HTML?

Whether you’re pursuing a career in development or simply looking for a valuable addition to your skill set, HTML is a great choice. Plus, it doesn’t take long to learn. In our Learn HTML course , you’ll learn the language’s basics and start using it to structure web pages in no time. Once you’ve got the basics down, check out our other courses on web development .

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Computer Science > Machine Learning

Title: understanding html with large language models.

Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) have shown exceptional performance on a variety of natural language tasks. Yet, their capabilities for HTML understanding -- i.e., parsing the raw HTML of a webpage, with applications to automation of web-based tasks, crawling, and browser-assisted retrieval -- have not been fully explored. We contribute HTML understanding models (fine-tuned LLMs) and an in-depth analysis of their capabilities under three tasks: (i) Semantic Classification of HTML elements, (ii) Description Generation for HTML inputs, and (iii) Autonomous Web Navigation of HTML pages. While previous work has developed dedicated architectures and training procedures for HTML understanding, we show that LLMs pretrained on standard natural language corpora transfer remarkably well to HTML understanding tasks. For instance, fine-tuned LLMs are 12% more accurate at semantic classification compared to models trained exclusively on the task dataset. Moreover, when fine-tuned on data from the MiniWoB benchmark, LLMs successfully complete 50% more tasks using 192x less data compared to the previous best supervised model. Out of the LLMs we evaluate, we show evidence that T5-based models are ideal due to their bidirectional encoder-decoder architecture. To promote further research on LLMs for HTML understanding, we create and open-source a large-scale HTML dataset distilled and auto-labeled from CommonCrawl.

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HTML Tutorial

Html graphics, html examples, html references, html introduction.

HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages.

What is HTML?

• HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
• HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages
• HTML describes the structure of a Web page
• HTML consists of a series of elements
• HTML elements tell the browser how to display the content
• HTML elements label pieces of content such as "this is a heading", "this is a paragraph", "this is a link", etc.

A Simple HTML Document

Example explained.

• The <!DOCTYPE html> declaration defines that this document is an HTML5 document
• The <html> element is the root element of an HTML page
• The <head> element contains meta information about the HTML page
• The <title> element specifies a title for the HTML page (which is shown in the browser's title bar or in the page's tab)
• The <body> element defines the document's body, and is a container for all the visible contents, such as headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, lists, etc.
• The <h1> element defines a large heading
• The <p> element defines a paragraph

What is an HTML Element?

An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag:

The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:

Note: Some HTML elements have no content (like the <br> element). These elements are called empty elements. Empty elements do not have an end tag!

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Web Browsers

The purpose of a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) is to read HTML documents and display them correctly.

A browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses them to determine how to display the document:

HTML Page Structure

Below is a visualization of an HTML page structure:

Note: The content inside the <body> section will be displayed in a browser. The content inside the <title> element will be shown in the browser's title bar or in the page's tab.

HTML History

Since the early days of the World Wide Web, there have been many versions of HTML:

This tutorial follows the latest HTML5 standard.

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The Evolution of HTML Markup Language

Introduction, html's early days html 1-4, the xml based experiment xhtml, html5 a paradigm shift.

The release of HTML5 in 2014 marked a significant turning point in web development. HTML5 introduced a plethora of new features, aiming to meet the growing demands of modern web applications. Key advancements included native audio and video support, canvas for dynamic graphics, geolocation capabilities, and the introduction of semantic elements like <header>, <nav>, and <article>. It also facilitated the integration of rich media, cross-browser compatibility, and improved mobile support.

THE ROLE OF CSS

HTML’s evolution has been closely intertwined with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which enables the separation of design and content. CSS gradually evolved alongside HTML, allowing developers to apply visual styles, layouts, and responsive designs more efficiently. CSS3 introduced advanced features like animations, transitions, and media queries, further enhancing the visual and interactive capabilities of HTML.

RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN

With the proliferation of mobile devices, the need for responsive web design became paramount. HTML responded to this demand by introducing responsive design principles. Media queries, flexible grids, and fluid images enabled websites to adapt seamlessly to various screen sizes and resolutions, providing optimal user experiences across devices.

ACCESSIBILITY AND SEMANTIC MARKUP

HTML’s evolution placed a greater emphasis on accessibility and semantic markup. The introduction of semantic elements, such as <header>, <nav>, <main>, and <footer>, helped provide more meaningful and structured content. Accessibility features like ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes and HTML5 form enhancements improved the usability and inclusivity of web content.

ONGOING STANDARDIZA TION EFFORTS

HTML continues to evolve through ongoing standardization efforts by organizations such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). New features and APIs are regularly proposed and implemented, ensuring the language remains up-to-date with the evolving needs of the web.

The journey of HTML from its humble beginnings to the modern HTML5 standard showcases its remarkable evolution. With each iteration, HTML has become more versatile, powerful, and aligned with the demands of the ever-changing web landscape. From structuring content to enabling dynamic multimedia and responsive design, HTML has transformed the way we create and interact with web pages. As HTML continues to evolve, it will remain at the forefront of web development, playing a vital role in shaping the future of the Internet.

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America Must Face Its Civic Crisis

O ur nation is in civic crisis. On one hand, Americans report historically low levels of trust in institutions and offices of government. On the other, they exaggerate the power of such institutions and offices, demanding that the U.S. president end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, for instance, or work harder to stop inflation . As the 2024 election approaches, some lament the travesty of a democracy reduced to a choice between bad and worse ; others view the prospect of their chosen candidates’ losing as they might the prospect of a foreign invasion or zombie apocalypse .

Americans are losing hope: specifically, that distinctive, civic hope that their own choices and actions can meaningfully and positively shape their communities’ futures. In the face of such hopelessness, we recall the words attributed to the late Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter: “In a democracy, the highest office is the office of citizen.”

The outcomes of the 2024 elections are hardly irrelevant to such fears; they have rarely mattered more. But whatever returns in November, the return of civic hope—and with it, the future of our democracy—depends on the return of the citizen: the conceptual and practical restoration of everyday Americans to the center of self-government.

Why is such a restoration important, and what would it look like?

The last 40 years of American politics illustrates the problem. Thanks to intellectuals and politicians of many stripes, the concept of democracy has shrunk in popular discourse to a form of consumption. Vote the right way—choose the right menu—and you can finally focus on you ! So long as you do your part to grow the overall economy, we’ll all have resources to live our lives as we want to live them—to tend to our own backyards, so to speak. As for the government? It’s one big vending machine. Its key performance measure is customer satisfaction . Insert preference, receive outcome. Not satisfied? We welcome your input ! (But please don’t shake, topple, or burn the machine in the process.)

For decades, Americans bought into this consumer view of citizenship. Beginning around the 1980s, the time and energy Americans invested in neighborhood organizations, communal gatherings, civic institutions, and community recreation began to decline drastically; in political scientist Robert Putnam’s figure, Alexis de Tocqueville’s nation of problem solvers and joiners had taken to “ bowling alone ”.

Meanwhile, cultural commitments of rewarding hard work and cultivating concern for the common good were twisted into an ethos of “meritocracy,” prizing individual achievement and distinction at the expense of collective problem solving and group success. Spearheading this trend was higher education, which rebranded itself as a corporate jobs pipeline rather than a civic and moral growth experience—a private instead of a public good. Our colleges and universities now justify every academic or other student program as a step on the path to personal success.

Finally, Americans’ vocational lives have lost the relational and reciprocal valences that energized culture-changing movements like the American Revolution and the Civil Rights struggle, for instance, and have shrunk, like democracy itself, into mere service delivery What percentage of shop owners, barkeeps, librarians, salon workers, or members of congress feel they have the capacity or even the right to create public space for their neighbors to speak frankly, listen generously, and work patiently across deep differences, in pursuit of shared goals?

Read More: How We Can Repair Our Democracy and Build a More Perfect Union

In short, the promise of political consumerism has proven false. Sub-contracting the collaborative and messy work of democracy to a small class of officers and officeholders encourages political laziness and selfishness, eroding citizens’ capacity to understand or accept any outcomes but those they seek to pay for with their votes. There is no opportunity to build trust across differences. Everyone feels screwed or fears getting screwed. And as politicians pander to the most demanding of their citizen-clients, those feelings and fears are reinforced by toxic political language, further eroding the people’s capacity to trust, respect, and solve problems with one another.

Growing polarization fuels the rise of a political class with more incentive to destroy opponents than to build common goods. Politics is no longer a space for civic inquiry, argument, and creativity, but a place where civic hope goes to die.

But it’s not dead yet. In the spirit of our history’s best political traditions, everyday Americans are demonstrating how a little civic hope can ignite a chain reaction of efforts to restore civic power—the kind of power that humanizes rather than corrupts, because it grows when shared.

One example is a growing backlash against polarization and renewed commitment to civic agency: the notion that only a citizenry equipped and habituated to living, learning, and working across differences towards more equitable goals can prevent tyranny and meaningfully govern themselves.

Braver Angels , for instance, emerged in the wake of the 2016 election to combat the toxic polarization that was tearing apart families and communities and has since spurred political intimidation and violence. Clearly, the need was real, and the approach appealing: Through BA, tens of thousands of Americans have participated in workshops that teach them how to maintain their principles while loving their differently-principled neighbors and seeking common ground for collaborative work to improve their communities.

Of course, cynics will read “workshop” as “talking-shop,” and remind us that talk is cheap. Well, what about the ways we earn our livings? Amid an ultra-polarizing 2018 election cycle, the Harvard Business Review found that 9 of 10 Americans surveyed were willing to earn less money to do work with a “collective, shared purpose” transcending individual gain. That same year, research reported in the Stanford Social Innovation Review found that millennials were especially eager to build the civic capacity of communities through their work. Half a decade later, experts see those values continuing to shape employment trends:  Indeed, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that, in the decade between 2022 and 2032, employment growth in “community and social service occupations” will outpace growth in all but three of the other 21 major occupational groups it tracks.

To be sure, certain classically “civic” professions, such as teaching, struggle to attract the numbers our communities need. But there is more to the story. Across the country, in a time when schools are often seen as centers of polarization over curriculum, communities and their school districts are revising curricula to give students a complex but practical civic education , fit for the work of critically constructive patriotism: work rooted in care for one’s fellow citizens and commitment to a better shared future rather than hatred of enemies or reverence for a mythological past.

Nor should we buy the hype that our colleges have all become sinkholes of political groupthink. With encouragement and assistance from organizations such as the Lumina Foundation and Teagle Foundation , a growing number of higher-education institutions are embracing a duty to help students mine the best moral and intellectual resources of our nation’s past in order to address the largest social and political challenges of the present. In the best of these initiatives, students learn the civically liberating as well as humbling lesson that there has never been a single narrative of the American past, present, or future, nor a consensus on the roles that diverse actors can, should, or must play in the American story. More, they learn that for many involved in our most storied culture-changing movements—from Independence to the Black freedom struggle—“citizenship” was not a fixed or exclusive status but a dynamic aspiration propelling millions to the work of building a more perfect union. In short, they learn that the work of defining and realizing democracy is their own.

But not solely their own. Like any complex society, we require a government that empowers certain citizens to act on our behalf. Recently, influential voices within as well as outside of government have demanded that we stop treating citizen and official as mutually exclusive roles. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020, for example, more than 100 contributors from the government and independent sectors published the Thriving Together Springboard , a plan for recovery from COVID and future challenges. The effort resonated with thousands of health and civic innovators across the country as well as scores of agencies across the federal government. By late 2022, nearly 50 federal agencies had crafted a landmark plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience (ELTRR).

Both the Springboard and ELTRR promote a pluralistic vision of “all people and places thriving together”; both view the capacity to expand “belonging” and build “civic muscle” as a vital condition of community health and well-being and a source of resilience when people face adversity and division. Finally, both emphasize that the knowledge, wisdom, creativity, and effort of community members are not just morally but practically necessary ingredients in any effective policy.

As the Springboard and ELTRR demonstrate, the “return of the citizen” need not mean the rejection of government. Democracy needs a government responsive to citizens and citizens engaged with government. But government and self-government are not synonymous. We need to study, support, elevate, and disseminate all the ways that citizens are hopefully and skillfully taking on the daily challenges of living in our democracy, and making the most of its opportunities.

Some will argue that Frankfurter’s office of citizen has never been filled or effective. If so, all the more reason for its rightful occupants to claim it. It is the nature of democracy to be ever in process. “Democracy,” as William James wrote in 1897, reflecting on the US Civil War amid the upheavals of the Gilded Age, “is still upon its trial. The civic genius of the people is its only bulwark.” Or as Walt Whitman put it a generation earlier, “We have frequently printed the word Democracy. Yet I cannot too often repeat that it is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened. It is a great word, whose history remains unwritten.”

It is we, the people, who must write it.

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HTML: HyperText Markup Language

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the most basic building block of the Web. It defines the meaning and structure of web content. Other technologies besides HTML are generally used to describe a web page's appearance/presentation ( CSS ) or functionality/behavior ( JavaScript ).

"Hypertext" refers to links that connect web pages to one another, either within a single website or between websites. Links are a fundamental aspect of the Web. By uploading content to the Internet and linking it to pages created by other people, you become an active participant in the World Wide Web.

HTML uses "markup" to annotate text, images, and other content for display in a Web browser. HTML markup includes special "elements" such as <head> , <title> , <body> , <header> , <footer> , <article> , <section> , <p> , <div> , <span> , <img> , <aside> , <audio> , <canvas> , <datalist> , <details> , <embed> , <nav> , <search> , <output> , <progress> , <video> , <ul> , <ol> , <li> and many others.

An HTML element is set off from other text in a document by "tags", which consist of the element name surrounded by " < " and " > ". The name of an element inside a tag is case-insensitive. That is, it can be written in uppercase, lowercase, or a mixture. For example, the <title> tag can be written as <Title> , <TITLE> , or in any other way. However, the convention and recommended practice is to write tags in lowercase.

The articles below can help you learn more about HTML.

Key resources

If you're new to web development, be sure to read our HTML Basics article to learn what HTML is and how to use it.

For articles about how to use HTML, as well as tutorials and complete examples, check out our HTML Learning Area .

In our extensive HTML reference section, you'll find the details about every element and attribute in HTML.

Beginner's tutorials

Our HTML Learning Area features multiple modules that teach HTML from the ground up — no previous knowledge required.

This module sets the stage, getting you used to important concepts and syntax such as looking at applying HTML to text, how to create hyperlinks, and how to use HTML to structure a web page.

This module explores how to use HTML to include multimedia in your web pages, including the different ways that images can be included, and how to embed video, audio, and even entire other webpages.

Representing tabular data on a webpage in an understandable, accessible way can be a challenge. This module covers basic table markup, along with more complex features such as implementing captions and summaries.

Forms are a very important part of the Web — these provide much of the functionality you need for interacting with websites, e.g. registering and logging in, sending feedback, buying products, and more. This module gets you started with creating the client-side/front-end parts of forms.

Provides links to sections of content explaining how to use HTML to solve very common problems when creating a web page: dealing with titles, adding images or videos, emphasizing content, creating a basic form, etc.

Advanced topics

The crossorigin attribute, in combination with an appropriate CORS header, allows images defined by the <img> element to be loaded from foreign origins and used in a <canvas> element as if they were being loaded from the current origin.

Some HTML elements that provide support for CORS , such as <img> or <video> , have a crossorigin attribute ( crossOrigin property), which lets you configure the CORS requests for the element's fetched data.

The preload value of the <link> element's rel attribute allows you to write declarative fetch requests in your HTML <head> , specifying resources that your pages will need very soon after loading, which you therefore want to start preloading early in the lifecycle of a page load, before the browser's main rendering machinery kicks in. This ensures that they are made available earlier and are less likely to block the page's first render, leading to performance improvements. This article provides a basic guide to how preload works.

HTML consists of elements , each of which may be modified by some number of attributes . HTML documents are connected to each other with links .

Browse a list of all HTML elements .

Elements in HTML have attributes . These are additional values that configure the elements or adjust their behavior in various ways.

Global attributes may be specified on all HTML elements , even those not specified in the standard . This means that any non-standard elements must still permit these attributes, even though those elements make the document HTML5-noncompliant.

HTML elements are usually "inline-level" or "block-level" elements. An inline-level element occupies only the space bounded by the tags that define it. A block-level element occupies the entire space of its parent element (container), thereby creating a "block box".

The <audio> and <video> elements allow you to play audio and video media natively within your content without the need for external software support.

HTML is comprised of several kinds of content, each of which is allowed to be used in certain contexts and is disallowed in others. Similarly, each context has a set of other content categories it can contain and elements that can or can't be used in them. This is a guide to these categories.

Historical information on quirks mode and standards mode.

Related topics

This article covers most of the ways you use CSS to add color to HTML content, listing what parts of HTML documents can be colored and what CSS properties to use when doing so.

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Inside the Apple core —

Apple releases eight small ai language models aimed at on-device use, openelm mirrors efforts by microsoft to make useful small ai language models that run locally..

Benj Edwards - Apr 25, 2024 8:55 pm UTC

In the world of AI, what might be called "small language models" have been growing in popularity recently because they can be run on a local device instead of requiring data center-grade computers in the cloud. On Wednesday, Apple introduced a set of tiny source-available AI language models called OpenELM that are small enough to run directly on a smartphone. They're mostly proof-of-concept research models for now, but they could form the basis of future on-device AI offerings from Apple.

Further Reading

Apple's new AI models, collectively named OpenELM for "Open-source Efficient Language Models," are currently available on the Hugging Face under an Apple Sample Code License . Since there are some restrictions in the license, it may not fit the commonly accepted definition of "open source," but the source code for OpenELM is available.

On Tuesday, we covered Microsoft's Phi-3 models , which aim to achieve something similar: a useful level of language understanding and processing performance in small AI models that can run locally. Phi-3-mini features 3.8 billion parameters, but some of Apple's OpenELM models are much smaller, ranging from 270 million to 3 billion parameters in eight distinct models.

In comparison, the largest model yet released in Meta's Llama 3 family includes 70 billion parameters (with a 400 billion version on the way), and OpenAI's GPT-3 from 2020 shipped with 175 billion parameters. Parameter count serves as a rough measure of AI model capability and complexity, but recent research has focused on making smaller AI language models as capable as larger ones were a few years ago.

The eight OpenELM models come in two flavors: four as "pretrained" (basically a raw, next-token version of the model) and four as instruction-tuned (fine-tuned for instruction following, which is more ideal for developing AI assistants and chatbots):

• OpenELM-270M
• OpenELM-450M
• OpenELM-1_1B
• OpenELM-270M-Instruct
• OpenELM-450M-Instruct
• OpenELM-1_1B-Instruct
• OpenELM-3B-Instruct

OpenELM features a 2048-token maximum context window. The models were trained on the publicly available datasets RefinedWeb , a version of PILE with duplications removed, a subset of RedPajama , and a subset of Dolma v1.6 , which Apple says totals around 1.8 trillion tokens of data. Tokens are fragmented representations of data used by AI language models for processing.

Apple says its approach with OpenELM includes a "layer-wise scaling strategy" that reportedly allocates parameters more efficiently across each layer, saving not only computational resources but also improving the model's performance while being trained on fewer tokens. According to Apple's released white paper , this strategy has enabled OpenELM to achieve a 2.36 percent improvement in accuracy over Allen AI's OLMo 1B (another small language model) while requiring half as many pre-training tokens.

Apple also released the code for CoreNet , a library it used to train OpenELM—and it also included reproducible training recipes that allow the weights (neural network files) to be replicated, which is unusual for a major tech company so far. As Apple says in its OpenELM paper abstract, transparency is a key goal for the company: "The reproducibility and transparency of large language models are crucial for advancing open research, ensuring the trustworthiness of results, and enabling investigations into data and model biases, as well as potential risks."

By releasing the source code, model weights, and training materials, Apple says it aims to "empower and enrich the open research community." However, it also cautions that since the models were trained on publicly sourced datasets, "there exists the possibility of these models producing outputs that are inaccurate, harmful, biased, or objectionable in response to user prompts."

While Apple has not yet integrated this new wave of AI language model capabilities into its consumer devices, the upcoming iOS 18 update (expected to be revealed in June at WWDC) is rumored to include new AI features that utilize on-device processing to ensure user privacy—though the company may potentially hire Google or OpenAI to handle more complex, off-device AI processing to give Siri a long-overdue boost.

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A Year on Ozempic Taught Me We’re Thinking About Obesity All Wrong

By Johann Hari

Mr. Hari is a British journalist and the author of “Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits — and Disturbing Risks — of the New Weight Loss Drugs.”

Ever since I was a teenager, I have dreamed of shedding a lot of weight. So when I shrank from 203 pounds to 161 in a year, I was baffled by my feelings. I was taking Ozempic, and I was haunted by the sense that I was cheating and doing something immoral.

I’m not the only one. In the United States (where I now split my time), over 70 percent of people are overweight or obese, and according to one poll, 47 percent of respondents said they were willing to pay to take the new weight-loss drugs. It’s not hard to see why. They cause users to lose an average of 10 to 20 percent of their body weight, and clinical trials suggest that the next generation of drugs (probably available soon) leads to a 24 percent loss, on average. Yet as more and more people take drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, we get more confused as a culture, bombarding anyone in the public eye who takes them with brutal shaming.

This is happening because we are trapped in a set of old stories about what obesity is and the morally acceptable ways to overcome it. But the fact that so many of us are turning to the new weight-loss drugs can be an opportunity to find a way out of that trap of shame and stigma — and to a more truthful story.

In my lifetime, obesity has exploded, from being rare to almost being the norm. I was born in 1979, and by the time I was 21, obesity rates in the United States had more than doubled . They have skyrocketed since. The obvious question is, why? And how do these new weight-loss drugs work? The answer to both lies in one word: satiety. It’s a concept that we don’t use much in everyday life but that we’ve all experienced at some point. It describes the sensation of having had enough and not wanting any more.

The primary reason we have gained weight at a pace unprecedented in human history is that our diets have radically changed in ways that have deeply undermined our ability to feel sated. My father grew up in a village in the Swiss mountains, where he ate fresh, whole foods that had been cooked from scratch and prepared on the day they were eaten. But in the 30 years between his childhood and mine, in the suburbs of London, the nature of food transformed across the Western world. He was horrified to see that almost everything I ate was reheated and heavily processed. The evidence is clear that the kind of food my father grew up eating quickly makes you feel full. But the kind of food I grew up eating, much of which is made in factories, often with artificial chemicals, left me feeling empty and as if I had a hole in my stomach. In a recent study of what American children eat, ultraprocessed food was found to make up 67 percent of their daily diet. This kind of food makes you want to eat more and more. Satiety comes late, if at all.

One scientific experiment — which I have nicknamed Cheesecake Park — seemed to me to crystallize this effect. Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, grew up in Ireland. After he moved in 2000 to the United States, when he was in his 20s, he gained 30 pounds in two years. He began to wonder if the American diet has some kind of strange effect on our brains and our cravings, so he designed an experiment to test it. He and his colleague Paul Johnson raised a group of rats in a cage and gave them an abundant supply of healthy, balanced rat chow made out of the kind of food rats had been eating for a very long time. The rats would eat it when they were hungry, and then they seemed to feel sated and stopped. They did not become fat.

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