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HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the language of the World Wide Web. HTML is ordinary ascii text with additional formatting information in it. The formatting information comes in the form of tags, and looks like ordinary text surrounded by a less-than and greater-than character. For instance, the tags to make text bold look like this:

<b> bold </b>

The <b> tells the web browser to start making text bold, and the </b> tells it to stop. Many tags come in pairs like this.

There are a variety of tags to do a variety of things. To see how a particular page is written, select the Document Source item from the View menu. Netscape will open up a separate window that displays the raw text with no formatting. You can learn a lot by examining how other web pages have been written.

There are many excellent on-line tutorials on HTML. ALL new HTML writers should start with the NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML .

Also, look at Yahoo's entry on HTML tutorials. The World Wide Web Consortium also has an active Web site. If you run out of things to learn from there (you won't), try doing a web search for more information about HTML, and to learn additional features of the language.

Most bookstores have tens of titles on HTML writing. Browse and buy whatever works for you. One recommendation is "HTML: The Definitive Guide", 2e, by Musciano and Kennedy, O'Reilly & Associates, 1997.