Q: What is a web page?
A: It is a text document containing both text meant to be read by humans and text that consists of formatting instructions ("tags") that tell a web browser how to compose the page for display. Web pages have two main parts: a HEAD section that contains a page's title and and other "meta-content" and a BODY section that contains the material that the user actually sees, interspersed with formatting instructions.
Q: If a web page contains only text, how do you get a web page to show pictures?
A: The textual formatting instructions tell the browser where to obtain the picture and where to place it. The pictures are stored in files that are separate from the web page; the browser assembles the page that you see based upon the tags contained in the web page.
Q: What is HTML?
A: "Hyper Text Markup Language"--a markup language is a set of codes that can be inserted in document to provide information beyond that conveyed in the document's text. Proofreader's marks are a sort of markup language. The Hyper Text Markup Language is a set of codes used to mark up a document so that a web browsing program can format the document, insert graphics, and create links to other documents (this is the "hyper text" part).
Q: What is a tag?
A: A tag is a piece of text in a web page that conveys information to the web browser, such as where to obtain a picture, or where a new paragraph starts. Tags begin with the < character and end with a > character. Tags usually come in pairs: one tag to start a new type of formatting (such as <B> to start displaying bold text) and one to end the formatting (such as </B> to end bold text display). Tags often contain "attributes" that modify what the tag does. For example, the <P> tag that means "start a new paragraph" can have an attribute that controls how the paragraph will be aligned: e.g., <P align="right"> means start a new paragraph and align it with the right margin of the page.
Q: How can I create a link?
A: Use a tag; specifically the <A> tag, also called the "anchor tag." The <A> tag contains an "HREF" attribute that tell the browser where the link goes (HREF means Hypertext Reference).
Q: Why should I learn HTML and tags and all this stuff instead of using a program that will do it for me?
A: No program is perfect, and none of them can anticipate every possible way you might wish to use HTML; learning the tags gives you more control over your work. Also, web-authoring programs are expensive, but almost every computer comes with a free text editor that can create web pages.