Step by Step HTML5

Applying Bold and Italic Formatting 29
CLEAN UP Close the Notepad and Internet Explorer windows.
Applying Bold and Italic Formatting
Applying bold and italic styles are two ways of making text stand out and attract
attention. You generally use these styles in paragraphs rather than in headings, but it’s
perfectly acceptable to use them anywhere.
For simple boldface and italics, use the and tags, respectively. These are twosided
tags that enclose the text to be formatted. For example:
I had a great time at the party.
The reception will be held at The Arbor Arch in Plainfield.
If you want to apply both bold and italic formatting, you can nest one tag inside the
other. Don’t mix up their order, though. When nesting tags, the rule is: first in, last out. So
this is correct:
The next book we will read is The Catcher in the Rye
In contrast, the following example is wrong, because the order of the ending and
tags are reversed:
The next book we will read is The Catcher in the Rye
Even though the tags in the preceding example are improperly nested, most browsers
will still display them correctly, provided you are using HTML as the document type. In an
XHTML document, however, this type of tag reversal is not accepted.