HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the language of the Web. When you look under the covers, virtually all the Web pages you visit are nothing more than a bunch of formatted letters, numbers, and symbols. Those letters, numbers, and symbols combine to create not only the page’s content, but also the instructions for how the user’s browser should present that content on the screen. Several combined technologies control the actual presentation, with HTML at the heart of it all.

The term “hypertext” in the name “HyperText Markup Language” refers to the links on Web pages that take you to somewhere else. Those are hyperlinks. As important as hyperlinks are to Web applications, it’s the “markup language” part of the HTML name that actually matters more. Without the markup language, Web pages would contain nothing more than a single solid block of text with no formatting, no coloration, no paragraphs, tables, or bulleted lists — and no hyperlinks. It’s the markup language that really is HTML and it’s the part you need to know something about.

This is the second in my series of articles on learning Domino Web application development. In the first article, I briefly introduced HTML and showed you some basic tags. Now the focus is on HTML, with particular emphasis on generating, using, and tweaking it in Domino applications. Although a little experience with HTML would be useful, it is by no means required, as I’m assuming you’re new to it. So, let’s get started.