HTML is the language of the web. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the computer langauge that the browser interprets in order to render the pages of your website.
HTML tells the browser that this is text, and this is a link, and this is image, and this is a heading, and this is paragraph, and this is an ordered list. It does so through the use of "tags" such as "<a>", "<img>", "<h1>".
Since HTML/XHTML is an evolving language, there are many different versions of it. The doctype at the top of the web page is what indicate what version of HTML that page is using.
You should be learning CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) in conjunction with HTML. Whereas HTML defines the structure and organization of the web page, CSS will tell the browser how to present that information such as what color to use, how large to make the text, and so on.
With today's methodologies of building web sites, you will be using both HTML and CSS at the same time during the building of the pages. That is because we no longer do page layouts with tables anymore. Page layouts are done with CSS layout without the use of table tags. This involves understanding of floats and clears which are part of the CSS vocabulary.
And if you have question, here is a list of forums where you can post your questions and the web community will try to help. Browsing the forum posts are also a great way to learn.
One HTML book that we highly recommend is Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML
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With lots of exercises, Q&A, crosswords, and even a five-minute mystery, this book makes learning fun. Beside characters with thought bubbles, it is filled with lots of explanatory side notes with arrows pointing to screen shots, diagram, and code syntax.
It makes great use of visuals to convey concepts. For example, photo of nested dolls to convey nested elements and scales to convey font-weight. Section titles such as "HTML Archeology", "Markup Magnet", "Element Soup", and "The Case of Relatives and Absolutes" will not get you bored. It covers HTML from the ground up going over tables, forms, XHTML, CSS, Box Model, and all the basics including web hosting and FTP. Over 100 customers gave this book a 5-star rating on amazon. |
