A common error when making web pages for the first time is to add extra carriage returns to the code – i.e. pressing the “return” key multiple times – in an attempt to get more vertical space between lines. Carriage returns, tabs, and more than one space are ignored by HTML — instead, they must be coded for. HTML is oblivious to carriage returns and spaces.

A common alternative error is to add tags that are devoid of content to attain the same effect – i.e. <p></p> <p></p> <p></p>, also known as “empty tags”. These should be avoided at all costs: there should never be any elements empty of content in a page, as the presence of such makes using CSS to control the appearence of that page in a consistent manner far more difficult.

(For those who may have attempted to make web pages in the past, <br> tags and   HTML entitities fall into the same category.)

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