EXCITING STUDY: HTML Elements

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

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="/excitingsearch/default.htm" >	This is a link	</a>
<br />

* The start tag is often called the opening tag. The end tag is often called the closing tag.

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

Tip: You will learn about attributes in the next chapter of this tutorial.

Nested HTML Elements

Most HTML elements can be nested (can contain other HTML elements).
HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.

HTML Document Example

___________________________________

<html>

<body>
This is my first paragraph.
</body>

</html>
_________________________________________

The example above contains 3 HTML elements.

HTML Example Explained

The element:

This is my first paragraph.

The element defines a paragraph in the HTML document.
The element has a start tag and an end tag .
The element content is: This is my first paragraph.
The <body> element:

<body>
This is my first paragraph.
</body>

The <body> element defines the body of the HTML document.
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>
This is my first paragraph.
</body>

</html>

The <html> element defines the whole HTML document.
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:
This is a paragraph
This is a paragraph