Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS4 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques

^#35 Apply HTML Tags to Text

The most basic and foundational way you apply formatting to text in HTML is by assigning already defined tags. HTML tags are basic because they provide a minimalist set of format attributes (mainly type size and emphasis) and foundational because HTML tags can be enhanced by associating CSS rules that enable all kinds of additional text formatting attributes.

HTML Styles—Similar to Word Processor Styles

The six HTML heading styles, h1 (Heading 1) to h6 (Heading 6), are similar to heading styles used in programs like Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, or even Microsoft Word.

HTML tags are interpreted in standard ways by browsers. For example, h1 tags (short for Heading 1) are larger than h2 tags, which are larger than h3 ...