Basic HTML Text Types

The most important part of a website is its content. All visible content within a website must go between the body tags of the HTML document. By far the largest part that makes up a website's content is text. Although a website is essentially a text document, if you want to insert text into a website you cannot just start typing. You must first define the text area. Just as the body content area is defined by a and tag, text must also be defined within a text content area.

There are two types of text that you can include within a website. You can include either a heading text or you can include paragraph text. Heading text can be separated into six subcategories based on size. The six heading types are labeled as H1 through H6. The H1 heading text is the largest text and is by default 24 pixels high. The H6 heading text is the smallest text at a default size of eight pixels. When inserting a heading text into your website you must use the proper opening and closing tags for the text you're trying to use. For example, if I wanted to type hello in heading one size this is what the code would look like...

hello

By changing the heading number in the code, you can change the size of the text. However, do not make the mistake of changing the opening tag number while not changing the closing tag number. Doing so would cause errors in your website including text not appearing. Unless otherwise specified, heading text is always bold.

The second type of text that can be used in a website is paragraph text. Paragraph text is used for the main body of your website. Paragraph text is code by using opening and closing "P" tags. If we wanted to insert the word "hello" as paragraph text, it would look like this...

hello

Unless specifically specified, your paragraph text will follow a font size, color, and other styling based on the styling defined for your website.
Heading tags are usually used for titles and other prominent text. Although you can use a heading as part of your body text, the World Wide Web Consortium frowns upon it. The World Wide Web Consortium, which put forth guidelines on the standardization of Web language, expects that a heading tag should only be used once within a webpage document. For example, if you used H1 as your title text, then you should refrain from using H1 as part of your menu bar. You should use for example H2. I would caution however, that although it's a guideline that should be followed, when it comes to the actual functionality of your website using more than one H1 tag within an HTML document will not cause an adverse effect on the site itself.