What is HTML? What are its Uses?

What if we told you that you had to survive without using the internet for a month? Feel suffocated right? However, that is not the main point here.

What we’re trying to convey is that just the way you need the internet, and it has become indispensable in your lives, there is one thing that the internet needs in order to function properly.

We’re talking about HTML. Let’s take a look at something that is core to the technology and makes our browsing the web possible.

What Is HTML?

HTML was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who taught us to use the internet and made it possible for all of us to be able to use it. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is basically a language that the computer understands which is used to create a web page and also to embed it with different elements, such as titles, headings, images, and videos. At its heart, it is a fairly simple language, which can be used to do the most complex of tasks.

HTML is written in terms of fixed codes, which ensure that the formatting of your web page has been done properly so that your browser is able to display all of its elements in an intended way. To understand it in simple terms, HTML is just a language that your browser understands, and the codes you type is the way you communicate with your browser. HTML is written as a combination of codes and tags.

Here Is What An HTML Tag Looks Like

This is a classic example of an HTML tag. Almost all tags have an opening and a closing tag. The opening tag contains certain attributes while the closing tag contains the name of the tag it is being closed for. Further, you’ll see less than and great than angle brackets. In this example, <a> creates a hyperlink called Computer Hope.

(Image Courtesy: ComputerHope)

Uses Of HTML

Now that we know that HTML is the backbone behind building a website, it is almost certain that it can be used to achieve various other things. Let’s take a look at some of the prominent uses of HTML:

#1. As discussed above, HTML is most prominently used in dictating the formatting of a web page. It is used to create the outlay of a web page along with deciding what elements will go where. As you go on linking HTML tags, you create a website. In fact, HTML, JavaScript is the holy duo behind website building.

#2. Apart from creating complete web pages, and websites, HTML can also be used to add particular elements in a preexisting web page. For instance, if you’re a content creator and work on a content management system, you jot down all your content in a particular format. The CMS is achieved by making use of HTML.

#3. HTML is also very frequently used for email purposes as it allows you to depict text in ways which would otherwise not be possible by the use of plain text. For instance, you can bold your text, italicize it, or even use custom fonts in your email, and all this is made possible by the use of HTML.

#4. HTML is also used as the ‘offline’ version of the help page of most software and applications that you install on your computer. Whenever you click on the ‘Help’ tab within an application, what you see is an HTML text.

So, there you have it. Clearly, HTML is an indispensable part of the internet. It is because of the use of HTML that Tim Berners-Lee was able to create the World Wide Web, and today, decades later, we still use to do almost everything on the internet. If you found this article informative, let us know in the comments below.

(Featured Image Courtesy: YouTube)