Tags
As you have learned, tags are the instructions that tell the web browser where to put things and how to make them look. Each tag begins with a left angle bracket ( < ) and end with a right angle bracket ( > ) Inbetween the angle brackets, place the tag name like this:
left angle bracket
<html>
right angle bracket
tag name
That tag is called a starting tag, and usually each starting tag has a closing tag like this:
</html>
Notice that all you had to do to make the ending tag is add a backslash ( / ) to the starting tag.
Are you wondering what this pair of tags will tell your browser to do? It is pretty simple. The starting tag, <html>, tells your Web browser that "Hey, here is the start of a file that contains HTML coded information." And the ending tag, </html>, tells your Web browser that "Okay, here is the end of my HTML file."
There are many different tags that you can use to tell your browser what to do. Just remember that tags are always enclosed in angle brackets.
Keep this in mind! All the letters in tag names should be lower case. At one time, it didn’t matter whether you typed them in upper or lower case. Now, it does. Most web browsers will still read upper or lower case tag names, but in the near future, having mixed case tag names may cause a problem. So don’t write <HTML> or <Html> or <hTmL> just use all lower case letters like so, <html>.
Think you’re getting the hang of HTML? Let’s check out a few more tags and see what they do. 
This resource originally created by Deborah Dunk.
Revised and edited by Michael Galloway in 2005 & in 2006.