Why You Should Use an Online HTML Formatter ?

As a web developer, readability of your HTML code is something you just cannot compromise on.

And if you are someone who is just starting out, adjusting and getting used to the practice of properly formatting your HTML file could end up being a lengthy, time consuming and a complex process.

But fortunately, we have an Online HTML formatter to make your job easier. What is an online HTML formatter? Why do you need it? and How to use it? Well, we’ve got all of your questions answered! So sit back and give this article a read until the very end.

What is the Need to Format HTML?

Before you go ahead and use the online HTML Beautifier, you need to know what it is for. Here are some of the reasons why you should format your HTML code:

Improving Readability: One of the basic reasons to format HTML is to improve readability.
And Good readability is vital especially if you are working in big teams. It is important for your team mate/co-worker to understand your code or else it will be very difficult for you to co-operate and work on a project in a team.
Makes your code more organised: After formatting your HTML code, your work will look more organized, making it much easier for everyone else to operate and understand.

Why to use this tool?

HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is a language that helps us to develop the websites. It does so by providing a way of formatting how the content on a webpage is organized. Being a markup language HTML is pretty easy to understand, read and write. However, any language or word can not be understood easily if it is poorly written or not formatted properly.

For Example, let us take a simple English language sentence:

Matt like fish to eats.

It is poorly written, jumbled up and grammatically incorrect. Thus, in spite being a fairly easy to understand sentence it becomes difficult to understand its meaning.

On the other hand, if it is written correctly, like:

Matt likes to eat fish.

Then the essence of the sentence is portrayed clearly. That is because of the proper sentence formatting. This example was to show you the importance of formatting. So, is the case with the coding languages and markup languages as well. Basically, any language, which you choose to communicate with others, must be formatted properly. It can be in any medium, whether verbal or written.

Why should you format your code?

Now, that is a good question. Let us take a look at an example for a better understanding. This is our HTML code example, here are two code snippets one is properly formatted the other is not.

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Page Title</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>This is a Heading</h1>

<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>

</html>

<html><head><title>Page Title</title></head><body><h1>This is a Heading</h1><p>This is a paragraph.</p></body>

So, out of these two, which one is clean and readable? First code. Right? Well that is because it is properly formatted. With the second code we have multiple issues, these issues include:

Absence of the <!DOCTYPE>: All HTML documents must start with a <!DOCTYPE> declaration. The declaration is not an HTML tag. It is an information to the browser. This we all know, so it is mandatory for you to start writing your HTML with a <!DOCTYPE>. As it will not only make your code look better and clean but it will not deprive your browser of the information it needs from your HTML.
No proper spaces between tags: Spacing is essential, especially in markup and coding languages where we are providing commands to our machines. So, make sure to add those spaces and skip lines wherever seems necessary. However, do not overuse it as it may do more harm than good.
Crammed up space: In the second example, the whole code is written in just two lines. However, in the first example the same code is spanning across ten whole lines. That is why the first code snippet is looking better. Thus, the importance of proper spacing can surely affect the way a reader perceives your code.
Improper Indentation: The tags are not indented at all in the second code snippet. However, in the first snippet proper tag indentation is present which is used to portray a proper hierarchy of the tags. Thus, indentation is also essential for a properly formatted and well written code.
Missing closing </html> at the end: This is extremely important. Mostly the tags are paired in HTML. So, make sure that you do not forget to close any paired tag. If you do, then there are two possibilities :

The browser will not generate the output at all, and you may need to spend hours for that missing tag. That too because there are no error messages displayed in HTML, so HTML will not help you here.
Browser displays the output but anyone who reads your code after deployment, finds it difficult to understand it.

All these issues make the second code snippet hard to understand, even when both pieces of code have the same content in them. Thus, you can understand for yourself that what the importance of a well-formatted piece of code is.

What is the solution to this problem?

Now, when we have understood that what the issue is, let us focus on finding its solution. Therefore, one way could be that you sit down pull an all-nighter and try to make your HTML code readable, or what you can do is try online HTML Formatter. It is a tool that will format your HTML code and allow you to copy formatted code with a single click.

Sounds pretty easy right! Well it is easy so why not give it a try and optimize your HTML code for better readability with a single click. In case you are wondering that you may need to copy your thousand line code then format it online, then do not sweat it. The online HTML Formatter will accept files and URLs as well. Therefore, you can just directly upload a file or give your drive link as well and your work will be done in just seconds. Quicker that you make your coffee for that all nighter!

What is this online tool about?

An Online HTML Formatter, as the name suggests, is an online tool that will automatically beautify an ugly HTML/ string file and make it pretty with your desired indentation level saving a lot of your time and effort. You will know more about this in the next part of the article.

Why do you need an formatter?

Now, as you already know, what is the need to formatting HTML and what an Online HTML beautifier is. It’s time to learn about the main point of this article: “Why you need it”.

More Efficient than manual formatting: As mentioned before, formatting HTML code is a lengthy process as you’ll have to go through the entire code multiple times and select appropriate tags to make it better and more readable. Using the Online HTML formatter/ beautifier, you can get the same work done spending much lesser time and effort.

Effective when working on large projects: This is one of the situations where the online HTML formatter tool is mostly used i.e. during large projects with tens of people working on it. In these situations, it is almost impossible to format the code as it is of thousands of lines. By using the online HTML Beautifier, you can easily format the code and co-ordinate with your teammates.

More Effective than Browsers: While many browsers automatically try and correct errors, ignore extra spaces& blank lines; there is also a high chance of browsers misinterpreting your HTML document. With browsers, there is no way you can control or format the document as you want. In order to tackle this problem, you will have to do external research about the information ignored by those browsers. But with the online HTML formatter, you will get your desired and the best possible output.

Provides Proper Indentation: This was one of the major drawbacks of the online HTML formatters in the past. But with this HTML fformatter online you have the comfort of choosing your indentation level.

How to Use this tool?

The “ease of use” is one of the best things about the online HTML formatter. You can the HTML formatter online in three simple steps:

First, you will have to enter the HTML source code in the space provided for the editor. You can either write your source code in this editor or you can copy it from your default editor and paste it in the online HTML Beautifier’s editor and you also have the option of just dragging and dropping the file of your HTML source code.
Click on the “Beautify/ Format” button.

(Here, it might take a few seconds while the code is being formatted)

And at the end, you can export the formatted HTML by either copying it to the clipboard or by clicking on the download button.

So what are you waiting for? Use the HTML Formatter Online to make your coding life simple!