First HTML Document
It seems every developing language tutorial ever written starts off with a simple example on how to display the message, ``Hello, World!'' Well, you won't see a ``Hello, World!'' example in this tutorial. After all, this is a style guide for the next millennium. Instead, ours sends greetings to the World Wide Web:
<html><head><title>My first HTML document</title></head><body><h2>My first HTML document</h2>Hello,<i>World Wide Web!</i><!-- No "Hello, World" for us --><p>Greetings from<br><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/www.ora.com">Anonymous</a><p>Composed with care by:<cite>(insert your name here)</cite><br>©2000 and beyond</body></html>
Go ahead: Type in the example HTML source on a fresh word-processing page and save it on your local disk as myfirst.html. Make sure you select to save it in ASCII format; word processor-specific file formats like Microsoft Word's ``.doc'' files save hidden characters that can confuse the browser software and disrupt your HTML document's display.
After saving myfirst.html (or just myfirst.htm if you are using a DOS- or Windows-based computer) onto disk, start up your browser, locate, and then open the document from the program's File menu. Your screen should look like Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1: A very simple HTML document
![[Graphic: Figure 2-1]](figs/uhtml0201.gif)