An Introduction to Hypertext and HTML

HyperText, a term coined by Ted Nelson an American computer scientist, in 1965. In computer science the definition of which is a collection of documents with cross-references which allow the user to jump between them. HyperText documents are used a lot in computers from an encyclopaedia program on a CD to the millions of pages stored on the Internet and local networks. The prefix hyper to the word text was used to describe the ease and speed at which a user can jump between bits of information.

To navigate through a hypertext system the user will need a program to do so, generally called a browser. Examples of browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape. A browser reads the hypertext document displays the text and highlights any portions that contain links to other sections and/or documents. To access a hyperlink, the cross-reference to another document, the user would normally use their mouse, or pointing device, and click on the piece of text highlighted. The browser then navigates to the document pointed to and displays it. On the web each page has an address known as a URL, a Uniform Resource Locator. This is where the document is stored and can be used to reference it from any other document.

Hypertext documents are created using a markup language. A markup language gives structure to a document, e.g. hyperlinks, titles and headings. HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, is the language for creating pages on the web. In HTML tags are embedded in the text to give the document structure and formatting. HTML is a subset of SGML, Standard Generalized Markup Language, a more complex language. HTML is very easy to get the hang of at a basic level, and it requires only a simple text editor such as Notepad to produce. It was this ease of production that aided the growth of the millions of personal sites that we see on the net today.

Hypertext allows data to be presented in a non-linear fashion that differs greatly from printed media. This can offer benefits to information seekers. Hypertext was one of the biggest reasons the Internet became so popular among the ordinary public.

HTML TUTORIAL: Next Article - The Basics of HTML