NEW DELHI: Mozilla has launched the first beta of its Firefox 4 browser. Based on Gecko 2.0 Web platform layout engine, Firefox 4 Beta 1 is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

The first beta of Firefox 4.0 mainly revamps the browser’s looks. Like for Windows users, Tabs have gone on top by default (like Chrome). Mac and Linux users are expected to get this feature as a default in subsequent betas. Another new feature for Windows users is the new orange 'Firefox' button on the top left. Click on it and it takes users to a drop-down filled with the most popular application menu items.

Other new significant features in the Firefox 4.0 beta are:

• Add-Ons Manager: Gives users more space to manage their Add-Ons, Themes and Plugins.
• Enhanced support for emerging Web standards like CSS 3, Canvas and Web Sockets
• HD Video: Watch hardware-accelerated, super-smooth, HD-quality HTML5 video on YouTube using the new WebM format.
• Privacy improvements: The beta fixes flaws in some Web standards that could expose user's browser history.
• Crash Protection: When a plugin crashes or freezes, users will be able to resume browsing by simply refreshing the page.
• Jetpack SDK for new-style lightweight add-ons
• The new Firefox 4.0 beta also promises performance improvement, including new HTML5 parser.

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HTML uses a hyperlink to link to another document on the Web. HTML uses the <a> (anchor) tag to create a link to another document. An anchor can point to any resource on the Web: an HTML page, an image, a sound file, a movie, etc. The syntax of creating an anchor: <a href="url">Text to be displayed</a> The <a> tag is used to create an anchor to link from, the href attribute is used to address the document to link to, and the words between the open and close of the anchor tag will be displayed as a hyperlink. This anchor defines a link to W3Schools: <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/">Visit W3Schools!</a> The line above will look like this in a browser: Visit W3Schools! The Target Attribute With the target attribute, you can define where the linked document will be opened. The line below will open the document in a new browser window: <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/" target="_blank">Visit W3Schools!</a> The Anchor Tag and the Name Attribute The name attribute is used to create a named anchor. When using named anchors we can create links that can jump directly into a specific section on a page, instead of letting the user scroll around to find what he/she is looking for. Below is the syntax of a named anchor: <a name="label">Text to be displayed</a> The name attribute is used to create a named anchor. The name of the anchor can be any text you care to use. The line below defines a named anchor: <a name="tips">Useful Tips Section</a> You should notice that a named anchor is not displayed in a special way. To link directly to the "tips" section, add a # sign and the name of the anchor to the end of a URL, like this: <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/html_links.asp#tips"> Jump to the Useful Tips Section</a> A hyperlink to the Useful Tips Section from WITHIN the file "html_links.asp" will look like this: <a href="#tips">Jump to the Useful Tips Section</a> Basic Notes – Useful Tips Always add a trailing slash to subfolder references. If you link like this: href="http://www.w3schools.com/html", you will generate two HTTP requests to the server, because the server will add a slash to the address and create a new request like this: href="http://www.w3schools.com/html/" Named anchors are often used to create "table of contents" at the beginning of a large document. Each chapter within the document is given a named anchor, and links to each of these anchors are put at the top of the document. Link Tags Tag     Description <a>     Defines an anchor

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Reserved characters in HTML must be replaced with character entities. Character Entities Some characters are reserved in HTML. For example, you cannot use the greater than or less than signs within your text because the browser could mistake them for markup. If we want the browser to actually display these characters we must insert character entities in the HTML source. A character entity looks like this: &entity_name; OR &#entity_number; To display a less than sign we must write: &lt; or &#60; The advantage of using an entity name instead of a number is that the name often is easier to remember. However, the disadvantage is that browsers may not support all entity names (while the support for entity numbers is very good). Non-breaking Space The most common character entity in HTML is the non-breaking space. Normally HTML will truncate spaces in your text. If you write 10 spaces in your text HTML will remove 9 of them. To add lots of spaces to your text, use the &nbsp; character entity. Try It Yourself This example lets you experiment with character entities: Try it yourself Commonly Used Character Entities Note Entity names are case sensitive! Result     Description     Entity Name     Entity Number non-breaking space     &nbsp;     &#160; <     less than     &lt;     &#60; >     greater than     &gt;     &#62; &     ampersand     &amp;     &#38; ¢     cent     &cent;     &#162; £     pound     &pound;     &#163; ¥     yen     &yen;     &#165; €     euro     &euro;     &#8364; §     section     &sect;     &#167; ©     copyright     &copy;     &#169; ®     registered trademark     &reg;     &#174;

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HTML defines a lot of elements for formatting output, like bold or italic text. Below are a lot of examples that you can try out yourself: Have you ever seen a Web page and wondered "Hey! How did they do that?" To find out, click the VIEW option in your browser’s toolbar and select SOURCE or PAGE SOURCE. This will open a window that shows you the HTML code of the page. Text Formatting Tags Tag     Description <b>     Defines bold text <big>     Defines big text <em>     Defines emphasized text <i>     Defines italic text <small>     Defines small text <strong>     Defines strong text <sub>     Defines subscripted text <sup>     Defines superscripted text <ins>     Defines inserted text <del>     Defines deleted text <s>     Deprecated. Use <del> instead <strike>     Deprecated. Use <del> instead <u>     Deprecated. Use styles instead "Computer Output" Tags Tag     Description <code>     Defines computer code text <kbd>     Defines keyboard text <samp>     Defines sample computer code <tt>     Defines teletype text <var>     Defines a variable <pre>     Defines preformatted text <listing>     Deprecated. Use <pre> instead <plaintext>     Deprecated. Use <pre> instead <xmp>     Deprecated. Use <pre> instead Citations, Quotations, and Definition Tags Tag     Description <abbr>     Defines an abbreviation <acronym>     Defines an acronym <address>     Defines an address element <bdo>     Defines the text direction <blockquote>     Defines a long quotation <q>     Defines a short quotation <cite>     Defines a citation <dfn>     Defines a definition term

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Attributes provide additional information to an HTML element. HTML Tag Attributes HTML tags can have attributes. Attributes provide additional information to an HTML element. Attributes always come in name/value pairs like this: name="value". Attributes are always specified in the start tag of an HTML element. Attributes Example 1: <h1> defines the start of a heading. <h1 align="center"> has additional information about the alignment. Try it yourself: Center aligned heading Attributes Example 2: <body> defines the body of an HTML document. <body bgcolor="yellow"> has additional information about the background color. Try it yourself: Background color Attributes Example 3: <table> defines an HTML table. (You will learn more about HTML tables later) <table border="1"> has additional information about the border around the table. Use Lowercase Attributes Attributes and attribute values are case-insensitive. However, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase attributes/attribute values in their HTML 4 recommendation, and XHTML demands lowercase attributes/attribute values. Always Quote Attribute Values Attribute values should always be enclosed in quotes. Double style quotes are the most common, but single style quotes are also allowed. In some rare situations, like when the attribute value itself contains quotes, it is necessary to use single quotes: name=’John "ShotGun" Nelson’

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An HTML document consists of HTML elements. HTML elements are defined by HTML tags. HTML Tags * HTML tags are markup surrounded by angle brackets like <html> * HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b> * The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag HTML Elements * An HTML element starts with a start tag * The element content is everything between the start and end tag * An HTML element ends with an end tag Example <html> <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> </body> </html> The example above contains 3 HTML elements. A <p> Element The <p> element defines a paragraph in the HTML document: <p>This is my first paragraph</p> The element starts with a start tag: <p> The element content is: This is my first paragraph The element ends with an end tag: </p> A <body> Element The <body> element defines the body of the HTML document: <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> </body> The element starts with a start tag: <body> The element content is another element (a paragraph) The element ends with an end tag: </body> An <html> Element The <html> element defines the whole HTML document: <html> <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> </body> </html> The element starts with a start tag: <html> The element content is another element (the body) The element ends with an end tag: </html> Why do We Use Lowercase Tags? HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>. Plenty of web sites use uppercase HTML tags in their pages. W3Schools use lowercase tags because the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase in HTML 4, and demands lowercase tags in newer versions of (X)HTML.

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This chapter covers some basic HTML tags like headings, paragraphs and line breaks.
Try it Yourself – Examples

The best way to learn HTML to work with examples.

We have created a nice HTML editor for you. With this editor, you can edit HTML source code, and click on a test button to view the result.

A very simple HTML document
This example is a very simple HTML document, with only a minimum of HTML tags. It demonstrates how the text inside a body element is displayed in the browser.

Simple paragraphs
This example demonstrates how the text inside paragraph elements is displayed in the browser.

(You can find more examples at the bottom of this page)
Headings

Headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags. <h1> defines the largest heading. <h6> defines the smallest heading.

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>
<h4>This is a heading</h4>
<h5>This is a heading</h5>
<h6>This is a heading</h6>

HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a heading.

Try it yourself
Paragraphs

Paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>

HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a paragraph.

Try it yourself
Don’t Forget the Closing Tag

You might have noticed that paragraphs can be written without end tags </p>:

<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is another paragraph

The example above will work in most browsers, but don’t rely on it. Future version of HTML will not allow you to skip ANY end tags.

Closing all HTML elements with an end tag is a future-proof way of writing HTML. It also makes the code easier to understand (read and browse) when you mark both where an element starts and where it ends.
Line Breaks

The <br> tag is used when you want to break a line, but don’t want to start a new paragraph. The <br> tag forces a line break wherever you place it.

<p>This <br> is a para<br>graph with line breaks</p>

Try it yourself

The <br> tag is an empty tag. It has no end tag like </br>, since a closing tag doesn’t make any sense.
<br> or <br />

More and more often you will see the <br> tag written like this: <br />

Because the <br> tag has no end tag (or closing tag), it breaks one of the rules for future HTML (the XML based XHTML), namely that all elements must be closed.

Writing it like <br /> is a future proof way of closing (or ending) the tag inside the opening tag, accepted by both HTML and XML.
Comments in HTML

The comment tag is used to insert a comment in the HTML source code. A comment will be ignored by the browser. You can use comments to explain your code, which can help you when you edit the source code at a later date.

<!– This is a comment –>

Note that you need an exclamation point after the opening bracket, but not before the closing bracket.

Try it yourself
HTML Elements

* Each HTML element has an element name (body, h1, p, br)
* The start tag is the name surrounded by angle brackets: <h1>
* The end tag is a slash and the name surrounded by angle brackets </h1>
* The element content occurs between the start tag and the end tag
* Some HTML elements have no content
* Some HTML elements have no end tag

You will learn more about HTML elements in the next chapter of this tutorial.
Basic Notes – Useful Tips

When you write HTML text, you can never be sure how the text is displayed in another browser. Some people have large computer displays, some have small. The text will be reformatted every time the user resizes his window. Never try to format the text in your editor by adding empty lines and spaces to the text.

HTML will truncate the spaces in your text. Any number of spaces count as one. Some extra information: In HTML a new line counts as one space.

Using empty paragraphs <p> to insert blank lines is a bad habit. Use the <br> tag instead. (But don’t use the <br> tag to create lists. Wait until you have learned about HTML lists.)

HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after some elements, like before and after a paragraph, and before and after a heading.

We use a horizontal rule (the <hr> tag), to separate the sections in our tutorials.
Examples From This Page

A very simple HTML document
This example is a very simple HTML document, with only a minimum of HTML tags. It demonstrates how the text inside a body element is displayed in the browser.

Simple paragraphs
This example demonstrates how the text inside paragraph elements is displayed in the browser.

Headings
This example demonstrates the tags that display headings in an HTML document.

Line breaks
This example demonstrates the use of line breaks in an HTML document.

Hidden comments
This example demonstrates how to insert a hidden comment in the HTML source code.
More Examples

More paragraphs
This example demonstrates some of the default behaviors of paragraph elements.

Poem problems
This example demonstrates some problems with HTML formatting.

Horizontal rule
This example demonstrates how to insert a horizontal rule.
Basic HTML Tags

If you lookup the basic HTML tags in the reference below, you will see that the reference contains additional information about tag attributes.

You will learn more about HTML tag attributes in the next chapter of this tutorial.
Tag     Description
<html>     Defines an HTML document
<body>     Defines the document’s body
<h1> to <h6>     Defines header 1 to header 6
<p>     Defines a paragraph
<br>     Inserts a single line break
<hr>     Defines a horizontal rule
<!–>     Defines a comment

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HTML is a language for describing web pages. * HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language * HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language * A markup language is a set of markup tags * The markup tags describe how text should be displayed by a web browser HTML Markup Tags * HTML tags are markup codes surrounded by brackets like <html> * HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b> * The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag What is an HTML File? * An HTML file is a text file with markup tags * An HTML file must have an htm or html file extension * An HTML file can be created using a simple text editor * An HTML file is often called an HTML document or a web page When a browser displays a web page, it will not display the markup tags. The browser uses the markup tags to understand the layout of the page. An HTML Document <html> <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> <p>This is my <b>second</b> paragraph</p> </body> </html> Try it yourself Example Explained When a browser displays a web page, it will not display the markup tags. The text between the <html> and </html> tags describes a web page. The text between the <body> and </body> tags is displayed in the web browser. The text between the <p> and </p> tags is displayed as paragraphs. The text between the <b> and </b> tags is displayed in a bold font. Writing HTML In this tutorial we use a plain text editor (like Notepad) to edit HTML. This is a good way to learn HTML. However, professional web developers often prefer HTML editors like FrontPage or Dreamweaver, instead of writing plain text. In the next chapter of this tutorial, you will learn how to create a web site on your computer.

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