Step-by-Step Guide

1. Choose a Text Editor:

  • Basic Text Editors: Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (macOS), Gedit (Linux)
  • Code Editors: Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, Atom, Brackets (Recommended for beginners)

2. Create a New File:

  • Open your chosen text editor.
  • Create a new, empty file.

3. Basic HTML Structure: Paste the following code into your file:

HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>My First Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
    <p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>

  • Save the file with a .html extension (e.g., index.html).

5. Open in a Web Browser:

  • Double-click the saved file to open it in your default web browser.

Understanding the Code

  • <!DOCTYPE html>: This declaration specifies the document type as HTML5.
  • <html></html>: This is the root element of an HTML document.
  • <head></head>: Contains meta-information about the webpage, like the title.
  • <title></title>: Sets the title of the webpage, displayed in the browser's tab.
  • <body></body>: Contains the visible content of the webpage.
  • <h1></h1>: Defines a level-one heading.
  • <p></p>: Defines a paragraph.

Explanation

  • The <!DOCTYPE html> declaration is essential for modern browsers to render the page correctly.
  • The head section contains information about the page, which is not displayed on the page itself.
  • The body section contains the visible content that users will see.

Additional Tips

  • Use consistent indentation to make your code more readable.
  • Add comments to explain your code: ``
  • Experiment with different HTML elements and attributes to create more complex pages.

Congratulations! You've created your first HTML file.