File Creation

A standard HTML document must have a file extension of .html. Some people like to use plain text editors that have no robust markup features, while others will use a very robust text editing software tool.

Choosing a code editor

Plain Text Editors If you want to test the HTML waters without going through the hassle of getting and installing some software package, I laid out instructions for both Windows(notepad) and Mac(textedit) users below on this page. Robust Code Editors Software exists that will do things like autocomplete your code, offer you code hints, built in HTML components for you, give you a design view to work in instead of code all the time, and many other things you may find helpful and productive. If you already have a robust text editing tool like Dreamweaver or BBEdit, they will render out HTML files for you easily in the "Save As" dialog. If that is the case for you then you can skip this information below and continue learning.

Creating HTML files on Windows using Notepad

1. Open Notepad
2. Write your HTML code
3. Go to File >> Save As
4. Change the "Save As Type:" option on the bottom from "Text Document" to "All Files"
5. Type in the file name: "index.html" and press the "Save" button
6. That is it, you should now have an HTML file

Creating HTML files on Mac using TextEdit

1. Open TextEdit
2. Open the "Format" tab and switch to plain text
3. Write your HTML code
4. Go to File >> Save As
5. Change the file extension from ".txt" to ".html" and name your file
6. Popup will ask you if you want to append ".txt". Choose "Don't Append"
7. That is it, you should now have an HTML file

After you successfully create an HTML file you should be able to double click the file icon and your default web browsing software will open it. That is how you test your HTML, run it in browser software. Browser software can also be told to open files from within the browser "File" menu(File >> Open >> browse for your .html file).