HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is a subset of SGML (Standard General Markup Language) and is the language used to define the layout and attributes of a World Wide Web document as well as to create links between web documents (documents being text, sound, or graphics).
HTML may appear intimidating at first, but once you begin to get the feel of it, there is little to be worried about; ten different coding commands will take care of 99% of your needs. Also, as html editors become more sophisticated, you will find they can do a lot of the "work" for you.
If you watch television, read magazines and newspapers, or receive mail at your home, you have probably seen a "URL" (uniform resource locator). When someone has information they want you to access via the Web, they'll give you its electronic address, its URL. URLs are unique to each document and are a relatively easy way to navigate between the millions of online documents.
Knowing a documents URL allows you to go directly to it; from most browsers you can go to the tool bar and click on the "open" button or go to the "File" menu and choose the option "Open URL" or "Open file". Regardless of which method you choose, a box will appear on your screen where you can enter the URL of the information you wish to access.
When naming HTML files, keep in mind that some clients require your file name to have a ".html" extension (for DOS/Windows users, this is a ".htm" extension). To be safe, all HTML files you create should use the ".html" naming convention.
You can view the HTML tags for any HTML document by looking at the "source" document that contains the HTML tags, usually called "View Source" or "View Document Source" from the "View" menu on most clients. Using this option is a nice way to learn new things as well as refresh your memory when working with HTML tags.