In today’s day and age, everyone should know a little bit of HTML.

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and is the lingua franca of cyberspace. Everything you see on the Web is wrapped in HTML. Consequently, any content that makes its way onto the Web will first have to be reformatted into HTML.

So if you want to make a Web site, post to certain blogs or just write fancy text in forums, it is useful to understand HTML. Even journalists have had to adopt the standard. Before this article makes it to the Web, some poor soul in the newsroom will go through it and add in HTML tags.

And now it is more important than ever to have a positive Web presence. A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that corporations such as Microsoft are increasingly reliant on Web searches to weed out job applicants, even before the first interview. Creating your own homepage is one way you can regain some influence over what those prospective employers find when they go Googling for your name.

This week’s column will walk you through the steps of creating your first (very simple) Web page in HTML.

TAG! You’re it!

In 1993, Tim Berners-Lee developed HTML to navigate files from one computer to another. The language itself revolves around “tags” — short descriptions that your computer’s browser can read. Each browser gives a little directive that says things like “Fetch an image and place it here,” “Make this bold” or “Put me in the first column of this table.”

Tags start with a less-than sign and end in a greater-than sign, e.g.