The HTML tag is a formatting command that comes in two parts: a beginning and a closing tag. Bracketing text between a beginning bold tag and an ending bold tag (like so: text) will, indeed, make it bold. The difference between a beginning and an ending tag is the "/" on the latter. Over time, some ending tags have become implied, most notably the tag, but don't be lazy. Tags are used to describe a document's structure as well as its visual formatting. Because browsers differ in how they display Web pages, you should always include structural tags like and .