HyperText describes the ability to click on a word or image with your mouse on one web page, and be whisked to another web page. For example, I can direct you to a picture in American Memory. Or, I can put that picture on this page, and by clicking on the image you can access a larger version. This is called linking. Pretty neat!

Woodstock, Vermont, 1940

By marking up (thus, Markup) your content with code called tags, you can shape the look of your pages. Note that HTML was designed to deliver content, not really to do page layout. HTML has gotten a bit more sophisticated over time, but it still has its limits. The most important thing is that, by using HTML code, you can make a document that is accessible to everyone with an internet connection.

Okay, let's find out what's needed to build a simple HTML document.