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HTML How to Make a Website HTML First Build Structure

Robbin Arcega
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Robbin Arcega
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 1,369 Points

What's the point of the "meta charset"?

Does it affect the actual code I'm writing? I've never seen it used before, though I have seen it in webpages when inspecting an element. This is more a question of curiosity than anything else. (Also, is it necessary to add it? What happens if you don't?)

1 Answer

Jason Anders
MOD
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points

Hey Robbin,

Yes, it is pretty much always needed. If you don't include it, you run the risk of your website not being displayed correctly by the browser. According to the W3 (as much as I'm not a fan of their docs) -- "To display an HTML page correctly, a web browser must know the character set (character encoding) to use."

UTF-8 (or unicode) pretty much covers every symbol in the world (including emojis).

There are different character sets. You can have a look at the simple W3 list or the more detailed and technical MDN Documentation.

Keep Coding! :)

:dizzy:

Robbin Arcega
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Robbin Arcega
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 1,369 Points

Thanks so much, Jason! It's been a long time since I've touched HTML. Looks like things have definitely changed a lot since I was 10 years old. :)