FAQ: Learn HTML - Common HTML Elements - The `<html>` tag

This community-built FAQ covers the “The <html> tag” exercise in Codecademy’s lessons on HTML.

Here are the most popular questions on the exercise The <html> tag:

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2 posts were split to a new topic: Why do we need the tag after the declaration?

2 posts were split to a new topic: Why do you need to put “< !DOCTYPE html >” in capital letters?

6 posts were split to a new topic: Does declaring language conflict with declaring the document as html?

How could we specify a different HTML version than HTML5?

The simple answer is to specify a different doctype.

Document type declaration - Wikipedia

1 Like

Dear respected sir/madam ,why we use this sign ( ! ) before writing DOCTYPE , what this symbol means?

Owing that there are several document types, of which HTML is but one, the DTD, or Document Type Declaration is of necessity written in another language. SGML is the language that DTDs are written in.

The role played by SGML in the early days may well have been supplanted by XML in modern times. Either way, it’s another language helping the client to adapt to the current document with which it is interacting. On top of that we have C++ (C# in IE and Edge, Go in Chrome) helping ES manage the behavior of the interface as well as manage the style sheets and other browser features.

All the behind the scenes stuff is of no concern to us on the development side. It’s what we call tools. We didn’t make the hammer or wrench, only use them.

So, does all the page contents need to be in between the open/closed html tags?

Something like this?

Here is some code

Hey, @py5265928793 welcome to the forums.

Yes, everything except the !DOCTYPE html needs to be in the HTML tags. And don’t forget to format your code: [How to] Format code in posts

My question is about the element that was mentioned in the introduction to HTML. I learned that other elements are content, not just plain texts, but in The Tag section, it was mentioned that the html tag does not have structure or content; by default, it does not have content. on still we start putting other tags or elements while writing?

Yes, you are correct. In HTML, the <html> tag is a container element that wraps around the entire HTML document. It provides a structure for the document and serves as the root element. While the <html> tag itself does not have visible content in the web page, it establishes the document’s structure and acts as a container for other tags or elements.

<html>
  <head>
    <title>My HTML Document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- Content goes here -->
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>This is a sample HTML document.</p>
  </body>
</html>

In the examples above, the <html> tag itself does not have visible content, but it provides the structure for the document and contains other tags (<head> and <body> ) that, in turn, include additional content and elements.