HTML is one of those acronyms we computer geeks are so fond of using (it stands for HyperText Markup Language). Basically, HTML is a way of providing instructions to World Wide Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. The browsers then translate those HTML instructions in order to control how text and graphics are displayed.

When your browser gets a document from a WWW site, the document contains text plus the HTML instructions. These instructions tell the browser where the paragraph breaks are, how some text should be formatted (boldface, italicized, or even both), and what text should be used as headings (such as the one at the start of this section). Additional instructions tell the browser that some text should be in a structured format such as bulleted lists:

or numbered lists:

or even lists within lists:

HTML can also be used to include graphics in your document, change the color of your text and background, create links to different sections in your document, and create links to other web pages. All in all, it's a powerful and versatile tool that drives the World Wide Web.

While HTML is used to control the appearance of web pages, it is important to remember that is is not a page layout language. If you try to use HTML the same way you use a word processing program, you will be frustrated. HTML is a document structuring language which allows you to organize your information and control some of its appearance.

Your web pages will be viewed on many different kinds of computers using different browsers and screens of varying sizes. Lines of text will wrap at different places and colors may look strange on different machines. You should consider this when using HTML and make your web pages as flexible as possible.