HTML

The Internet is a collection of computers around the world connected to each other via a highspeed
series of networks. The World Wide Web – or Web – consists of a vast assortment of
files and documents that are stored on these computers and written in some form of HyperText
Markup Language (HTML) that tells browsers how to display the information. The computers
that store the files are called servers because they can serve requests from many users at the
same time. Users access these HTML files and documents via applications called browsers.
Academic Technology and Creative Services: Spring 2010 Web Design: An Introduction 1
Academic Technology and Creative Services: Spring 2010 Web Design: An Introduction 2
The Language of the Web: HTML
HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the authoring language that describes how a Web
page should be displayed by a Web browser. It has two essential features: hypertext and
universality. Hypertext means when a visitor clicks a link on a Web page, the visitor is led to
another Web page or document. Universality means that because HTML documents are saved
as text files, virtually any computer can read a Web page.1 For increased accessibility to your
Web pages, we recommend using XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) when
creating your Web pages.
Web Browsers
A Web browser is a program that displays Web pages and other documents on the Web.
Unfortunately, different browsers may interpret the HTML of Web pages somewhat differently,
and thus, when you create Web pages remember that they may appear different when viewed in
various browsers. The University supports the browsers illustrated below, which can be
downloaded free from the company’s Web site.
Internet Explorer (www.microsoft.com)
Firefox (www.mozilla.org)
Safari (Mac - www.apple.com)
Note: A visitor can customize many display
features of a browser, including:
▪ background color
▪ font
▪ font size
▪ text and link colors, and
▪ whether or not to download images.
1 Castro, E. (2003). HTML for the World Wide Web, Fifth Edition, with XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart
Guide. 14.
How Browsers Display Web pages
When a Web page is opened in a browser, the browser reads and interprets the HTML file and
formats the Web page for display. If there are references to external files, such as images or
multimedia, these files are downloaded from the server and displayed in the browser window. It
is important to note that HTML files are text files that only contain references to the external
files – you do not “embed” these files into the Web page.
Saving