Quick HTML Edits: Fixing a Web Page from Your Phone

HTML is the language of web pages. Even if you never build a website, you may need to fix a typo, update a phone number or correct a link. A text editor is enough for small changes.

The basic structure

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>My page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello</h1>
    <p>This is a paragraph.</p>
    <a href="https://example.com">A link</a>
  </body>
</html>

Most HTML uses tags in angle brackets, usually in pairs: an opening tag starts an element, such as a paragraph, and a closing tag with a slash ends it.

Common tags

Tag	Meaning
h1 – h6	headings, from largest to smallest
p	paragraph
a	link, with an href address
img	image, with a src address
ul, ol, li	bullet list, numbered list, list item
strong, em	bold and italic emphasis
div, span	containers for grouping

Safe quick edits

1. Copy the file first.
2. Search for the text you want to change.
3. Change only the text, not the tags around it.
4. Keep the tags paired. If you delete an opening tag, delete its closing tag too.
5. Keep quotes around attribute values: href="...".
6. Save and test in a browser.

Typical small fixes

• A typo in a heading or paragraph.
• A changed phone number or opening hours.
• A broken link: check the address inside href.
• An image path that no longer works.

Special characters

The angle-bracket and ampersand characters have special meaning in HTML. To display them as ordinary text, HTML uses named codes written between an ampersand and a semicolon: lt for less-than, gt for greater-than and amp for the ampersand itself. Otherwise the browser may think you're starting a tag.

Encoding

Save HTML as UTF-8, and make sure the file declares it near the top, so accents and emoji display correctly.

Uploading

Editing a local file only changes your copy. To update a live website, you'll need to upload the file or use the site's own editing tools.

Learn more

Reading a page's HTML is a friendly way to see how the web works, and small edits build confidence.

Get Notepad+ Text Editor →