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TAGS AND ATTRIBUTES
As we know, HTML is a markup language. It uses tags to markup the content of the web pages. These
tags also have attributes. Let us learn more about tags and attributes.
Tags
Tags are the basic building blocks of a web page. They tell the browser how the information is to be displayed
on the web page. Tags do not appear in the browser window but they affect the display of the text and
non-text items within it. Each tag in HTML follows specific rules and syntax. HTML tags are not case-sensitive.
In HTML document, a tag name begins with an opening angular bracket (<) and ends with closing
angular bracket (>). For example,
<TagName> content </TagName>
Opening tag Closing tag
Both the opening and closing tags are the same. The only difference is that the closing tag contains
a forward slash before the tag name. Most of the tags in HTML have opening and closing tags. A
combination of an opening tag, content, and closing tag is called an element.
The HTML tags can be categorised as:
Container Tags: The tags that have both opening and closing tags are called Container Tags.
For example <b> ...... </b>
<head> ...... </head>
Empty Tags: Empty tags contain only an opening tag. They do not have a closing tag. These tags do
not enclose any data.
For example <br>, <hr>, etc.
HTML tags can also be further classified as:
Block Level Tags: The block level tags take up the full width available and by default begin on a new
line. Some of the block level tags are Paragraph <P>, headings <H1> to <H6>, Horizontal Rule <HR>, etc.
Text Level Tags: The text level tags are used to mark up parts of the text. These tags do not start with
a new line. Some of the text level tags are Bold <B>, Superscript <sup>, Italic <i>, Subscript <sub>, etc.
Nesting of Tags
Nesting of tags means that you can start a new tag before closing the previous tag. The key point to
remember is that tags are nested based on the LIFO principle, that is, Last In First Out. This means that
the tag that has been opened last needs to be closed first. For example: <body> <h1> Happy Coding
! </h1> </body>
Attribute
An attribute is a property that provides additional information about a tag. It enhances the
functionality of a tag. It is always specified inside the opening tag. All attributes consist of
two parts—a name and a value.
The ‘name’ is the property that you want to set.
The ‘value’ is what you want for the respective property.
Introduction to HTML5 & CSS3 45
