It is recommended that every HTML document should have a basic structure.
First, in order to be an html document, and for tags to work properly, the file must be named with an html extender, as in filename.html
From the name, the browser knows it is an html document, and will follow the HTML rules in displaying the contents.
While documents will display HTML without them. it is also recommended that every HTML document should include the following standard tags:
<html>
<head>
<title> </title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
This is a convention that helps the many different browsers used by others to interpret your HTML document properly. Some modern browsers appear about to begin using these standard tags to position important parts of their code, and in future may not work properly on files that do not have them.
Should you include them? One prolific HTML author says Yes! He says he doesn't want to have to go back and put them in each of his 200-300 pages if one day he finds a new browser will not read his files.
In Lynx the title element will display the title text in the upper right corner of the screen, a useful reminder for viewers.
The other elements are used to denote different parts of the HTML document. The <html> and </html> tags identify everything between them as being formal html code. It is expected some future browsers will place certain commands outside these tags.
Usually, the only thing appearing in the Head portion is the title. Generally, all of the actual text and HTML formatting is in the Body section.
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Last modified 1996/04/28 16:32:02 GMT by helpdoc