HTML is the fundamental code for websites, using tags to format content. It has undergone revisions and expansions, with variations like XML, CSS, and DHTML enhancing interactivity. Learning HTML can be complex, but focusing on the 4.01 standards allows for maximum interactivity and consistency across browsers.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the fundamental form of computer code upon which websites on the World Wide Web (WWW) are based. HTML is known as a scripting language that uses standard English words enclosed in parentheses, known as tags, to tell a computer browser various formatting options for displaying content. This can include text formatting such as bold, italics and indentation features as well as display options for images, video and audio files or other interactive features on websites. While HTML projects initially started out as very simple in the early 1990s, since then the hypertext markup language has undergone several revisions and expansions to adapt to the new capabilities of computer browsers and high-speed Internet connections. The first standards update for HTML projects occurred in late 1995, when the HTML 2.0 standards allowed for new features on websites, such as tables for text and images and image maps; as of the year 2000, however, HTML projects had reached a revision stage of 4.01, allowing browsers to more efficiently display derivations of HTML coding schemes such as extensible markup language (XML).
While website design as of 2011 remains firmly grounded in HTML code principles, there are now many variations on working with HTML that also use scripting languages based on English words enclosed in tags, which a browser interprets to display the content. Popular variations on HTML projects that use other coding schemes include XML, cascading style sheets (CSS), dynamic HTML (DHTML), and more. As each new coding scheme has been adopted by software development companies releasing versions of popular computer browsers, the functionality of websites and the ease of customization have become greater.
The main advantage of XML is that it gives HTML workers the ability to specify how elements of a web page are displayed based on their content rather than the form in which they are stored, which makes duplicating a page-to-page layout compared to standard HTML designs. CSS offers a similar benefit with text displays that use a small amount of HTML code that accesses CSS files stored on the server a website is uploaded to. This makes it much easier to change text size, font and color for all pages on a website, by editing a small number of CSS files rather than each web page individually.
Other forms of HTML design, such as DHTML, are expansions of the original HTML principles to enhance interactivity. DHTML incorporates the use of javascript into web pages, allowing for the inclusion of interactive forms and databases on web sites whose characteristics are chosen by the person writing the HTML code. An HTML editor or software program for writing HTML projects as of 2011 may also incorporate various subprograms for interactive content, such as vector-based animation. Vector-based animation allows a website to create images and animations that are stored solely as mathematical vectors and numeric values, eliminating the need to download cumbersome images to a local computer to view animation effects.
Learning HTML can start out as a simple process and quickly become complex once someone encounters all the various new coding schemes that are being plugged into HTML designs to improve the look and appeal of a website. Each coding scheme may also have limited support across various types of browsers, where one will display your code correctly and another will not. Plug-ins, or small programs built into a browser, also need to be downloaded to a personal computer for some HTML design elements to work, such as vector-based animation. For this reason, working with HTML should first focus on a comprehensive view of the 4.01 standards detailed in modern web design books and online tutorials. Referencing the latest version of the HTML standards allows a designer to create a site that offers maximum interactivity, as well as having the likelihood of displaying consistently across all modern computer browsers built to support the standard.
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