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HTML How to Make a Website HTML First Use HTML Elements

What does it mean to "write an HTML doctype"?

I write <DOCTYPE html> and I keep getting it wrong. Is it something I'm missing?

index.html
<DOCTYPE html>

3 Answers

Lucian Pintilie
Lucian Pintilie
9,938 Points

Yes, you have to put an exclamation point in front of the doctype between the angle brackets

When you add the ! like the other user suggested it will tell your web browser, hey, this is html.

<!DOCTYPE html> states to your browser that the following information is to be read as HTML5.

Before HTML5 there were over 6 different types to declare whether it was HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0.

Depending on what DOCTYPE you used, it provided the dictionary of html tags that could be translated.