HTML documents are viewed over the World Wide Web on many different types of computers using different operating systems (including Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Unix, and Linux). The file format for HTML, therefore, must be compatible with these different systems. The simplest kind of computer file is a plain text file, which is known as an ASCII file.

So an HTML document is really nothing more than a plain text file, which can be created in a number of different ways. If you use the Windows Notepad program, your file is automatically saved in ASCII format. The WordPad program (part of Windows 95/98) has an option to save a file as a "text document." Other programs such as word processors also have options to save documents as text; you would select the "Save As" option and specify ASCII format.

HTML files are generally saved with the extension .html (such as deptinfo.html ). For systems which only support 3 character extensions (such as Windows 3.1), the extension .htm can be used. Most web browsers recognize either of these file extensions as HTML documents.

If you create and save an HTML file on your computer's local disk drive (in ASCII format), you can view that document from your browser. In Netscape 4, use the File command and select Open Page (in version 3 it is Open File). You will get a standard Windows file box; find the right directory and choose your file. Netscape will then display it with using the HTML commands you inserted. This makes it easy to test your documents as you create them. Other browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer also allow you to view local files.

To share your documents with others on the World Wide Web, you must install them on a WWW server. If you have an account on a server where you get email, you may be able to create a special directory and copy your files there, making them available anywhere in the world. We'll cover instructions for doing this later on.