HTML Basics

General Info:

The bare minimum software to create HTML is a text editor, like Notepad, but any word processor will work, too, as long as you save it as plain text.
The latest versions of most word processing applications, plus many other applications, also have the capability or option to convert the documents to HTML.
There are also many HTML editors available. Most cost money, but a few are free. General rule of thumb: the more it costs -- the more features it has, the more it can do.
Tags are not case sensitive. <TITLE> or <title> are the same.
Blank lines and multiple spaces are ignored.
Anything without tags will be displayed as is.
Any unknown tag or incorrect tag is usually ignored.
Different browsers may display tags differently.
Most tags need a beginning and ending tag such as <TITLE> and </TITLE>. Others such as <P>, <BR>, <HR> and <LI>, to name some, do not need an ending tag. When in doubt, use an ending tag.
Save your HTML file as index.html

Structure:

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>

</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

</BODY>

</HTML>

Structure notes: Notice the first tag is <HTML> and the last tag is </HTML>. Every HTML document must begin and end with those tags. The second tag is <HEAD>. This is where <TITLE> goes, in between <HEAD> and </HEAD>. Everything else goes between <BODY> and </BODY>

Title

<TITLE>...</TITLE> Place between <HEAD> and </HEAD>. This is displayed on the browser title bar

Paragraphs and Line Breaks

<P>...</P> Paragraph tag, </P> is optional. Inserts blank line.

<BR> Line break (hard return). </BR> is optional. No blank line.

Note: When text follows a heading, such as <H1>...</H1>, a blank line will follow it automatically. A paragraph or break tag isn't necessary.

Horizontal Rule

<HR> places a horizontal line on the page (no ending tag necessary)

Formatting

<B>Bold</B> Bold
<I>Italics</I> Italics
<U>Underline</U> Underline

Headlines

<H1>Headline 1</H1> (largest)

Headline 1

<H2>Headline 2</H2>

Headline 2

<H3>Headline 3</H3>

Headline 3

<H4>Headline 4</H4>

Headline 4

<H5>Headline 5</H5>

Headline 5

<H6>Headline 6</H6> (smallest)

Headline 6

Centering

<CENTER>Centers text</CENTER> Centers text

Lists

<OL>...</OL> Ordered List (numbered)

<UL>...</UL> Unordered List (bulleted)

Ordered Lists

<OL>
<LI>First Item
<LI>Second Item
<LI>Third Item
</OL>

Ordered list as it is viewed in a browser

First Item
Second Item
Third Item

Unordered List

<UL>
<LI>An Item
<LI>Another Item
<LI>Yet Another Item
</UL>

Unordered list as it is viewed in a browser

An Item
Another Item
Yet Another Item