HTML is an acronym that stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the source code used by web browsers to render web pages. It includes a hierarchal tag structure that allows you to specify text elements, such as headings, paragraphs and lists, as well as supporting hyperlinks and embedded images.

HTML can be used to load scripts written in other languages—such as JavaScript, which controls the behavior of browsers, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which control the appearance and layout of the text and web content on a web page.

In SWF-based websites, an HTML page is generated that includes the embed parameter necessary to load Adobe Flash Player and display a linked SWF file in the browser.

The publish settings in Adobe Flash Professional include precreated HTML templates that use the profile settings of a project to generate the required HTML code to upload to a remote server so that a browser can render SWF content.

Flash HTML templates include a one-line title that appears on the Template pop-up menu on the HTML tab of the Publish Settings dialog box and a longer description that appears when you click Info on the HTML tab of the Publish Settings dialog box. For more information, see the section titled HTML publishing templates in the Flash documentation.

Some Flash projects incorporate HTML tags within ActionScript code to format a specific element. For example, you can set a form field to render HTML formatting and then include the tags to specify how the text inside that field appears.