This is the simplest possible Web page. You use normal word-processing features such as bold and headings, and the program converts this to a form with all the appropriate tags when you save the document. It will also save existing Word documents in HTML format, so it takes almost no time to publish on the Web material you have already typed up. This means that HTML provides a good basis for long term storage of information. In fact it is not even necessary to use the Internet for distributing HTML-tagged texts.
Most Web browsers are equally capable of reading HTML-tagged texts on a local hard disk or floppy.
So, even if you and those interested in your family history do not have Internet access, distributing your family history as a collection of HTML files on a floppy disk gives you all the advantages of universal exchangeability and of the hypertextual information structure. With the developments currently underway in HTML, it is likely that within a few years there will be a standard way of including tags to indicate, for example, the sources of any information, and HTML could even develop sufficiently to function as a standard format for the exchange of genealogical information. In order to publish on the World Wide Web you need to have Internet access via an Internet provider who will allow you to store pages on their server. Many Internet providers already do this, usually giving you a minimum storage area free, and then charging for larger amounts of storage. Once your pages have been uploaded from your computer to your Internet Provider s Web server, they are available to anyone else with an Internet connection and a browser.