HTML documents are defined by HTML elements.
HTML Elements
An HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:| Start tag * | Element content | End tag * |
|---|---|---|
| <p> | This is a paragraph | </p> |
| <a href="default.htm"> | This is a link | </a> |
| <br> |
HTML Element Syntax
- An HTML element starts with a start tag / opening tag
- An HTML element ends with an end tag / closing tag
- The element content is everything between the start and the end tag
- Some HTML elements have empty content
- Empty elements are closed in the start tag
- Most HTML elements can have attributes
Nested HTML Elements
Most HTML elements can be nested (can contain other HTML elements).HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.
HTML Document Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
The example above contains 3 HTML elements.<html>
<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
HTML Example Explained
The <p> element:
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
The <p> element defines a paragraph in the HTML document.The element has a start tag <p> and an end tag </p>.
The element content is: This is my first paragraph.
The <body> element:
<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>
The <body> element defines the body of the HTML document.<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>
The element has a start tag <body> and an end tag </body>.
The element content is another HTML element (a p element).
The <html> element:
<html>
<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
The <html> element defines the whole HTML document.<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
The element has a start tag <html> and an end tag </html>.
The element content is another HTML element (the body element).
Don't Forget the End Tag
Some HTML elements might display correctly even if you forget the end tag:
<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is a paragraph
The example above works in most browsers, because the closing tag is
considered optional. <p>This is a paragraph
Never rely on this. Many HTML elements will 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).
Tip: In XHTML, all elements must be closed. Adding a slash inside the start tag, like <br />, is the proper way of closing empty elements in XHTML (and XML).
HTML Tip: Use Lowercase Tags
HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>. Many web sites use uppercase HTML tags.W3Schools use lowercase tags because the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase in HTML 4, and demands lowercase tags in XHTML.
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