HTML
A website is a collection of web pages which are stored on a server as HTML files. A HTML file contains HTML code and defines a web page which is also called a HTML document.
Text documents are written in Word processors, while HTML documents are written in code editors. The former are saved as .odt
, .doc
, .docx
, .epub
or .pdf
files, the latter as .htm
or .html
files.
Creating a web page is similar to writing a text document, as you can see in the image above. A HTML document contains HTML code, which consists of the page contents (e.g. texts, images, links, etc.) mixed with a few pieces of code. These code piece describes the content type. For example, a piece of text could be a heading, a paragraph or a quote. This influences the default styling that a browser applies to the content and it also makes a web page accessible, e.g. to blind people.
In addition, HTML defines the structure of a web page. A typical web page has multiple areas: navigation, main content, sidebar, and footer. Such a structure is the basis for positioning these areas, i.e. the layout. The layout and design is defined by CSS rules. In addition, JavaScript (JS) can add interactivity and functionality to a web page. You learn more about CSS and JS later on.
You can also skip ahead to the practical part of building a HTML website by going up to the Overview again. However, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the topics that are mentioned above.