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Formatting Text

This page is part of the WebCom Web Publishing Guide. It explains how to format sections of text (words, phrases, blocks) in HTML.


STRONG/EMphasis and Bold/Italic

<EM></EM>
emphasis
<STRONG></STRONG>
strong emphasis
<I></I>
italic
<B></B>
bold

HTML is a "logical" markup language: this means it leaves control over the appearance of a document up to the program viewing it. To create a document that takes advantage of this, use the logical mark-up tags: <EM>(phasis) and <STRONG> when you want to emphasize a point, or strongly emphasize a point (instead of bold and italic).

Use <I>(talic) and <B>(old) when you specifically want to display italic or boldface text. Note that most browsers will render these two sets of tags similarly.


Other Formatting Markup Tags

If a browser does not support these tags, the text will appear normal. Browsers are programmed to ignore (and not display) tags they don't understand. Two of the most commonly supported examples are provided below.

<ADDRESS>

John Doe 123 Smith Park Santa Cruz, CA 95062
</ADDRESS>

<BLOCKQUOTE>

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." -- Woody Allen
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