HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is a text-based markup language. You can use HTML to create web pages with hyperlinks, images, and other content. The organization "World Wide Web Consortium" (W3C) determines which vocabulary and which grammar must be used in these codes. In 2014, HTML5 appeared as the successor to the fourth HTML version and brought a lot of new display options and functions with it.
New features in HTML5
The markup language HTML4 was developed in the late 1990s and barely revised for 10 years. In the meantime, the use of the Internet differed enormously from then: Whereas in the 1990s the focus was still on the presentation of content, nowadays it is more about interaction. Comment functions, multimedia elements and social media links were previously only cumbersome to integrate using plug-ins - HTML5 simplifies the integration of such functions. We have summarized the most important new features in HTML5 below:
- Structuring elements: A decisive innovation that HTML5 brought with it is the introduction of structuring elements such as sections (<section>), navigation bars (<nav>), independent content within a document (<article>) or headers (<header> ). These structuring elements are particularly helpful to make it easier for search engines to crawl and thus achieve a good ranking in the search results.
- Multimedia content: With HTML5, the integration of audio and video files is also possible without an additional plug-in. The files can be integrated using the <audio> and <video> elements in the same way as images.
- Interactive elements: Interactive elements can also be integrated into a website using HTML5. For example, fold-out elements can be integrated via <details>. <summary> defines the associated heading, which is constantly displayed. Context menus can also be created using <menu>.
- Form elements : Compared to HTML4, HTML5 can display extended form elements. For example, it can be shown to what extent a task has been completed (<progress>) or suggestions for completion can be made (<datalist>).
Other advantages of HTML5
In addition to the specific innovations, HTML5 has other advantages over the previous version HTML4. Since the code is clearer and more structured than before, later revision is easier, the code is less prone to errors and the compatibility of the programmed page in the different browsers increases. In addition, the good structure ensures that the page can be found more easily by search engines - keyword SEO.
Another advantage of HTML5 is the ability to create web apps that can better display the content on smartphones and tablets..
For example, detailed tutorials on HTML5 can be found at https://wiki.selfhtml.org/wiki/HTML/Tutorials .
