HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, the standard set of formatting codes which are inserted into a text file to be published on the World Wide Web. These codes effect how the text in the file will be displayed when viewed over the Internet by people using Mosaic and other World Wide Web browsers, and also tell the Web browser where to find other resources (such as images) displayed within the page or which have been hotlinked to it.

This page and every other page on the Web uses HTML to display the information within it. If you're using a Mosaic-like browser, you should have a menu command containing the word "Source" ("View Source", for example) under your File or View pull-down menu. You can select that menu command to see the HTML codes used to format this (or any other) Web page. (If you're using Lynx, push the backslash (\) key to view the source HTML).

Although HTML codes do effect how the page is rendered (displayed), that is not the reason markup language standards such as HTML are so valuable (in fact they don't give you as much control as you might like, and these silly tags seem primitive next to modern desktop publishing tools). The value in a markup language is not in that it provides for visual structure of the text when viewed, but more importantly because it provides a logical structure to the text. That is, pieces of text are defined not so much according to how they'll look (font and size, etc.) but rather the logical function of the text within the document (major heading, paragraph, list item, etc.). This logical structure allows software to process the information intelligently and thus provides a prerequisite for the efficient communication, transmission, organization, indexing, and discovery of information.

For more information see the Web Communications HTML Guide.