HTML Basic Examples
Don't worry if these examples use tags you have not learned.
You will learn them in the next chapters.
HTML Documents
All HTML documents must start with a type declaration: <!DOCTYPE html>.The HTML document itself begins with <html> and ends with </html>.
The visible part of the HTML document is between <body> and </body>.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
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HTML Headings
HTML headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags:Example
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>
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HTML Paragraphs
HTML paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag:Example
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>
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HTML Links
HTML links are defined with the <a> tag:Example
<a href="http://www.w3schools.com">This is a link</a>
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Attributes are used to provide additional information about HTML elements.
HTML Images
HTML images are defined with the <img> tag.The source file (src), alternative text (alt), and size (width and height) are provided as attributes:
Example
<img src="w3schools.jpg" alt="W3Schools.com" width="104" height="142">
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HTML documents are made up by HTML elements.
HTML Elements
HTML elements are written with a start tag, with an end tag, with the content in between:
<tagname>content</tagname>
The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
<p>My first HTML paragraph.</p>
| Start tag | Element content | End tag |
|---|---|---|
| <h1> | My First Heading | </h1> |
| <p> | My first paragraph. | </p> |
| <br> |
 |
Some HTML elements do not have an end tag. |
|---|
Nested HTML Elements
HTML elements can be nested (elements can contain elements).All HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.
This example contains 4 HTML elements:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Try it yourself »
HTML Example Explained
The <html> element defines the whole document.It has a start tag <html> and an end tag </html>.
The element content is another HTML element (the <body> element).
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
It has a start tag <body> and an end tag </body>.
The element content is two other HTML elements (<h1> and <p>).
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
It has a start tag <h1> and an end tag </h1>.
The element content is: My First Heading.
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
It has a start tag <p> and an end tag </p>.
The element content is: My first paragraph.
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
Don't Forget the End Tag
Some HTML elements will display correctly, even if you forget the end tag:The example above works in all browsers, because the closing tag is considered optional.
Never rely on this. It might produce unexpected results and/or errors if you forget the end tag.
Empty HTML Elements
HTML elements with no content are called empty elements.<br> is an empty element without a closing tag (the <br> tag defines a line break).
Empty elements can be "closed" in the opening tag like this: <br />.
HTML5 does not require empty elements to be closed. But if you want stricter validation, or you need to make your document readable by XML parsers, you should close all HTML elements.
HTML Tip: Use Lowercase Tags
HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>.The HTML5 standard does not require lowercase tags, but W3C recommends lowercase in HTML4, and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.