Document Elements

HTML documents have a fairly simple structure. The entire document is an 'HTML element', so it begins with a <HTML> tag and ends with a </HTML> tag. Inside this element, the HTML document is divided into two sections: a "head" and a "body." The head contains information about the document, while the body contains the document itself.

This division into sections is marked using HEAD and BODY elements, as follows:

	<HTML>
	<HEAD>
		document header info goes here....
	</HEAD>
	<BODY>
		the body of the document goes here...
	</BODY>
	</HTML>

Only certain elements are supposed to go into each section. For our purposes, the only element that goes in the HEAD section is the TITLE element (TITLE is a paired tag). All of the rest of the tags we will discuss go only in the BODY.

The TITLE element designates the title of the document. This title does not appear on the page itself, but does appear at the top of the browser screen and when the page is bookmarked. It's important to choose a concise yet explanatory title. The Title element looks like this:
<TITLE>Document Title Goes Here</TITLE>

So, the basic structure of the document looks like this:

	<HTML>
	<HEAD>
		<TITLE>Sample Document</TITLE>
	</HEAD>
	<BODY>
		the body of the document goes here...
	</BODY>
	</HTML>

For more explanations, see also the Document Elements section of the HTML Chart.

JAH, September 8, 1997.