The following was provided by Ron Lee, a Serendipist in Australia, and first appeared in the About Serendip forum. A more extensive HTML glossary is also available on Serendip.

What is HTML?
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language - HTML is a set of formatting and linking commands that enable the production of WWW style documents. The markup takes the form of 'meta text' that is processed by the browser rather than displayed verbatim.

The browser recognises anything contained within carets as information for itself, not text to be displayed to the user. Which is why it is so difficult to <grin>.

Basic Formatting Commands
<P> - This text inserted into a document will cause a paragraph break. A blank line will be left before resuming text output.

<BR> - Will force a line break (carriage return for the typists out there).

<CENTER> 'this text will be centered' </CENTER>

<B> Will make the text BOLD, until </B> turns it off again.

NOTE that bold and center will continue to affect your text until they are switched off with the '/command'. They do not stop at the end of a line.

The only other command I will introduce here is the 'anchor'. This command can be used to link to external documents (or even within documents). It's general form is:
<A HREF= "URL of file"> Text to be displayed goes here </A>

For example: <A HREF= "http://www.saspc.asn.au/saspc" >Skydive Lower Light.</A>
Will give: Skydive Lower Light.

I would be inclined to urge discretion with the use of such anchors though. Serendip's value lies in original thoughts, not vast collections of links..
Anyhow that's some basics to get you started - there are plenty of online resources if you wish to look deeper.

Oh if you were wondering how I was able to display the 'unprintable' < and > carets - well that's a slightly different form - use '&lt;' (less than) and '&gt;' (greater than).

Have Fun,
Ron.

A more extensive HTML glossary is also available on Serendip.