The first important fact to remember is that all HTML files must be in text format. They can not be Word documents. So, if you use Word make sure you save it as "raw text". To solve lots of headaches, try using a simple text editor like "SimpleText" on the Macs or "Notebook" on the PCs which save in raw text format.
HTML is the scripting language used to create Webpages on the Internet. HTML commands come in the form of what is called tags. For example, if I want to break to a new line, I would type in the following tag in my file : < br >. Tags can come by themselves as in the break tag I just showed you or in pairs. For example, to create a title for your web page, surround your title with the start and stop title tags as follows: < TITLE > Term Paper Number 1 < /TITLE > . When HTML tags come in pairs the ending tag starts with a /.
All good webpages (HTML documents) start with the following necessary tags in the file as shown in the order below. These tags will create a blank webpage. Hit the "Try IT" link to see a display of this HTML code. The HTML tags tell you the start and stop of your html code. The HEAD tags tell you the start and stop of the header information. The TITLE tages tell you the start and stop of the title information. The BODY tags tell you the start and stop of the body, which is the visible portion of the webpage.
< HTML >
< HEAD >
< TITLE > < /TITLE >
< /HEAD>
< BODY >
< /BODY >
< /HTML >