Most nodes that are linked to on a website are webpages.  These webpages are documents containing text and hyperlinks.  These documents are primarily based on HTML which organises the text and hypertext for use on the WWW.

HTML files are really simple text files, that is, a sequential list of characters.  They can be created and edited using a simple text editor.  To see this, go to any webpage and choose to "View Page Source"

Therefore, being simple text files, HTML files can be edited and created using any simple text editor.  Various software applications, collectivelly called HTML or Web page editors, are available and range from simple text editors, such as Notepad, to WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editors that encapsulate the HTML and display the pages in the formatted state.

HTML Tags

HTML uses tags to specify formatting, hyperlinks and numerous other functions (see table below for some common examples).  All tags are enclosed with angled brackets <  >; these brackets indicate to the web browser that the text enclosed is an instruction rather than text for display.

Note: with XHTML, each beginning tag must have a corresponding closing tag. For example, <title>Page Title</title>, will dispay the "Page Title in the header of the page (usually the Tab)

See: HTML Reference

Table: Common HTML tags