HTML - Basic Tags

HTML tags are the fundamental elements of HTML used for defining the structure of the document. These are letters or words enclosed by angle brackets (< and >).

Usually, most of the HTML tags contain an opening and a closing tag. Each tag has a different meaning, and the browser reads the tags and displays the contents enclosed by them accordingly.

For example, if we wrap any text in the paragraph (<p></p>) tag, the browser displays it as a separate paragraph. In this tutorial, we will discuss all the basic tags in HTML.

Heading Tags

Heading tags are used to define headings of documents. You can use different sizes for your headings. HTML also has six levels of headings, which use the elements <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>. While displaying any heading, the browser adds one line before and one line after that heading.

Example

Following HTML code demonstrates various levels of headings:

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Heading Example</title> </head> <body> <h1>This is heading 1</h1> <h2>This is heading 2</h2> <h3>This is heading 3</h3> <h4>This is heading 4</h4> <h5>This is heading 5</h5> <h6>This is heading 6</h6> </body> </html>

Paragraph Tag

The <p> tag offers a way to structure your text into different paragraphs. Each paragraph of text should go in between an opening <p> and a closing </p> tag.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of paragraph (<p>) tag, here we are defining 3 paragraphs −

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Paragraph Example</title> </head> <body> <p>Here is a first paragraph of text.</p> <p>Here is a second paragraph of text.</p> <p>Here is a third paragraph of text.</p> </body> </html>

Line Break Tag

Whenever you use the <br /> element, anything following it starts from the next line. This tag is an example of an empty element, where you do not need opening and closing tags, as there is nothing to go in between them.

The <br /> tag has a space between the characters br and the forward slash /. If you omit this space, older browsers will have trouble rendering the line break, while if you miss the forward slash character and just use <br>, it is not valid in XHTML.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of break (<br />) tag −

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Line Break Example</title> </head> <body> <p>Hello<br /> You delivered your assignment on time.<br /> Thanks<br /> Mahnaz</p> </body> </html>

Center Tag

The <center> tag aligns text, images, or other HTML elements in the middle of a web page.

Note: The <center> tag is deprecated in HTML5. You can use the CSS text-align property to center elements.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of the <center> tag. Here, we are displaying the second paragraph in center alignment:

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Centering Content Example</title> </head> <body> <p>This text is not in the center.</p> <center> <p>This text is in the center.</p> </center> </body> </html>

Horizonal Rule Tag

The horizontal rule (<hr>) tag displays a horizonal line. A horizontal line visually breaks up sections of a document. The <hr> tag creates a line from the current position in the document to the right margin and breaks the line accordingly.

Example

The following example draws a horizontal line between two paragraphs −

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Horizontal Line Example</title> </head> <body> <p>This is paragraph one and should be on top</p> <hr /> <p>This is paragraph two and should be at bottom</p> </body> </html>

On executing the above example, you can see a straight line dividing the two paragraphs.

The <hr /> tag is an example of the empty element, where you do not need opening and closing tags, as there is nothing to go in between them.

The <hr /> element has a space between the characters hr and the forward slash. If you omit this space, older browsers will have trouble rendering the horizontal line, while if you miss the forward slash character and just use <hr>, it is not valid in XHTML.

Preserve Formatting Tag

The <pre> tag is used to preserve the formatting. Whenever you want to display content on the webpage exactly in the same format as it was written in the HTML document, you can use the <pre> tag. It preserves the formatting of source code, including line breaks and indentation.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of the <pre> tag. Here, we are displaying some code that should keep the formatting exactly the same as it is written inside the <pre> tag −

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Preserve Formatting Example</title> </head> <body> <pre> function testFunction( strText ){ alert (strText) } </pre> </body> </html>

 function testFunction( strText ){ alert (strText) }

Non-breaking Spaces

Non-breaking spaces prevent an automatic line break and are displayed using the   entity.

Suppose if you want to use the phrase "12 Angry Men." Here, you would not want a browser to split the "12, Angry" and "Men" across two lines −

An example of this technique appears in the movie "12 Angry Men."

In cases, where you do not want the client browser to break text, you should use a nonbreaking space entity   instead of a normal space. For example, when coding the "12 Angry Men" in a paragraph, you should use something similar to the following code −

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of   entity −

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Nonbreaking Spaces Example</title> </head> <body> <p>An example of this technique appears in the movie "12 Angry Men."</p> <p>An example of this technique appears in the movie "12&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Angry Men."</p> </body> </html>

On executing the above example, it will display the sentence: An example of this technique appears in the movie "12 Angry Men." twice. Since we have added 3 " " characters between 12 and men, the second time, you can observe three spaces.

Listing Tags

The <ul> and <ol> tags create the unordered and ordered listings, and to display list items, the <li> tag is used.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of listing tags −

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Listing Tags Example</title> </head> <body> <h2>Unordered list</h2> <ul> <li>Item 1</li> <li>Item 2</li> <li>Item 3</li> </ul> <h2>Ordered list</h2> <ul> <li>Item 1</li> <li>Item 2</li> <li>Item 3</li> </ul> </body> </html>

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