What is an HTM or HTML file? html File extension html extension than to open

The most common problem that prevents users from opening this file is an incorrectly assigned program. To fix this in Windows OS you need to click right click on the file, in the context menu, hover the mouse over the "Open with" item, and select the "Select program..." item from the drop-down menu. As a result you will see a list installed programs on your computer, and you can choose the appropriate one. We also recommend checking the box next to “Use this application for all HTML files.”

Another problem that our users also encounter quite often is that the HTML file is corrupted. This situation can arise in many cases. For example: the file was downloaded incompletely as a result server errors, the file was damaged initially, etc. To fix this problem, use one of the recommendations:

  • Try to find required file in another source on the Internet. You may have luck finding a more suitable version. Example Google search: "File filetype:HTML" . Just replace the word "file" with the name you want;
  • Ask them to send you the original file again, it may have been damaged during transmission;

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Every webmaster knows what HTML is: it is a hypertext markup language, with the help of which the site’s markup, its structure, framework, and foundation are created. Majority web pages on the Internet have an HTML extension.

In this article, we will figure out how to open an HTML file on a computer, what are the ways to open a document with the HTML extension, and what programs can run this type of file.

How to open an HTML file (document) on a computer

There are several options for how to open an HTML file (document) on your computer.

If you look closely at the file image, you can see that this is an image of your default browser. In this case it is Opera. If the default browser Google Chrome, then, accordingly, the Chrome icon will be visible. Etc.

If you double-click with the left mouse button on a local file with the HTML extension, it will open viewing in the browser.

But you’ve already tried it and you know it, so let’s move on to the second option.

The second option involves opening the source code of the HTML file. To do this you should:


The best program to open HTML files | reading HTML documents

We have already figured out that you can open an HTML file on your computer using Notepad and WordPad. This is not the best option for reading and viewing HTML documents. Every webmaster knows that specialized programs They are better suited for this type of work; they provide much more opportunities due to expanded functionality.

One of the most best programs to open, edit, HTML creation files is text editor Notepad++.

The main advantages of Notepad++:

  1. This is a free open-source text editor source code. Well, how can you not resist a freebie...
  2. Syntax highlighting. HTML, CSS, PHP, JS are visually highlighted in it, which greatly simplifies viewing and editing code and text.
  3. Autocompletion, automatic closing of brackets and tags.
  4. Ability to work with several documents at once using convenient tabs.
  5. The search function is really something. You can find the fragment you are looking for not only within one document, but also search in many files at once, within the specified folder.

This is just a small part of the advantages that I have identified for myself. To write everything down functionality a separate article will be required. Besides, standard features can be expanded by installing additional plugins, then Notepad++ turns into a whole “combine”.

Programs for opening HTML documents

Of course, besides Notepad++, there are other programs with which you can open HTML files, view code, and edit them.

Some of them are paid, some are free.

While studying theoretical material on the HTML language, some users have a question: how paste html file into web browser? Like, already written html code, view in browser. See , so to speak, the result of the work done.

As we have already agreed, we write our html code in the Notepad program (but no one forbids using other editors, Notepad++, for example, which is even more convenient).

And so, open the Notepad program and write some html code in it. Let's take the html code from the last lesson.

</span><span>

"Description" content=" Page description">

True, such html code will not give us anything in the browser. Required between tags And write something else, for example a title and a couple of paragraphs:

Everything is working

We add these three lines to our html code and get code like this:

</span><span>title of the document (web page)</span><span>

"Description" content=" Page description">

Checking the result of writing html code

Everything is working

Save our file: click file → save as

In the window that opens, select the folder in which we will save the file, enter the file name (for example, dokument), change the file extension .txt to .html, and set the file type to “All files”.


To open our file in a browser, hover the mouse pointer over the file, right-click, in the window that opens, select “Open with” and select the browser we are using.

Next lesson - .

Beginner users, when encountering a file with the .html extension, may have problems opening it. Such files can be received by mail or via a social network and contain, for example, a report or some forms. But it is strongly recommended not to open such files if you are not sure of their reliability.

First, it’s worth understanding what html files are for. Basically, this extension is used for one purpose - to open them in the user's web browser. All sites that the user visits are built exclusively on them, or rather written in html codes, which are not visible to site visitors. The user only sees ready-made pages, as they were intended. To open this file, just double-click on it with the left mouse button. Please note that next to the html file there may be a folder with images, text documents etc. This may be the case if this is a saved (or created) site page. This folder is the external content of the entire page, we are only interested in the main html file. By default, the system selects web browsers as the operating program for opening html files. In this case, it will open the file using the web browsers that are installed on the computer. If the OS has been reinstalled, or web browsers have not been installed, the file will open in a standard browser - Internet Explorer. It is possible that there is no program assigned to a given file extension. Then you need to choose work program on one's own. Right-click on this file and select "Open with...". If you want to look full list programs, click “Select program...”. A window will open showing all available work programs. We are interested in web browsers. In the screenshot below, the computer has browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox. Any of them will be suitable to open this file. The above method is suitable for opening a finished HTML document. But there may be times when we need to open this file to change its structure, its html code. Here you can use an ordinary notepad, having previously set it as a working program. If you do not want a file of this extension to always be opened with Notepad, uncheck the bottom box. Notepad will display a similar structure, this is the html code. The given structure is given as an example and represents a saved page of this site. Other documents with the html extension may have different structures. Although Notepad opens these files, it can still be inconvenient to work with html documents, especially if you need to make changes there. It is best to use the Notepad++ program, which is specifically designed for working with html and is used by many programmers.

Using these methods, you can open any file with html format both for making changes and for simple viewing. It should be remembered that files with the extension html and htm are the same and do not differ in any way.

How to create an HTML file, open, edit, convert and what is its difference from HTM:

Files with the HTM or HTML extension are files written in hypertext markup language ( Hypertext Markup Language), which are standard web pages.

Since HTM files are text files, they contain only text, as well as text links to other external files. For example, the pictures in this article.

HTM and HTML files can contain links to other file types - for example, video, CSS or JS files.

How to open an HTM or HTML file

Any browser, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc., will open and display HTM and HTML files correctly.

There are many programs designed to make editing and creating HTM/HTML files easier. The most popular editors are Eclipse, Komodo Edit, and Bluefish.

Another popular editor with a huge number additional features is Adobe Dreamweaver, however it is not available for free use.

You can also use a simple text editor to make changes to the HTM or HTML file. Notepad++ is probably the best option. "Notepad" included in the operating room Windows systems also works with HTML files. But it was designed to solve other problems. Therefore, before opening an HTML file, you need to get used to its features.

How to convert to HTM and HTML files

The structure of HTM files is built in a special way and has a very specific syntax. This is done to ensure that the code and the text within it display properly when opened in a browser.

Therefore, converting an HTM or HTML file to another format will result in the loss of the web page. But if you want to convert an HTM or HTML file to another format for easier viewing, for example, an image or a PDF file, then this is done very simply.

To convert a web page to PDF in the Google Chrome browser, select “Save as PDF” from the “Print” menu.

Also for Google browser Chrome extension Full Page Screen Capture is available. It converts a file opened in the browser to PNG format. Other browsers also have similar tools and extensions.

In addition to this, you can use special services designed for converting HTM/HTML files, such as iWeb2Shot, Convert Webpage, or Web-capture.

Note: It is important to understand that you cannot convert an HTM/HTML file to any other format other than text. For example, it cannot be converted to an MP3 audio file.

HTM vs HTML: what's the difference?

To know how to open an HTML file on your computer, let's first understand the differences between the two web page formats.

In addition to the letter " L", of course...

Short answer: there is no difference.

Long answer: there is no difference, but be careful when using one or another extension.

Previously, during the days of MS-DOS, file extensions were limited to three letters. For a relatively short period of time, when HTM and HTM ruled the world, HTML did not exist.

Today, web pages that end in both HTM and HTML are completely acceptable.

The server hosting the web page may require you to use a specific HTML file extension. For example, index.html or index.htm . If you are unsure which extension to use, contact your hosting provider.

This publication is a translation of the article “WHAT IS AN HTM OR HTML FILE? ", prepared by the friendly project team