Does XML let me make up my own tags?

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> No, it lets you make up names for your own elements. If you think tags and elements are the same thing you are already in trouble: read the rest of this question carefully. Before we start this one, Bob DuCharme notes: Don't confuse the term `tag' with the term `element' . They are not interchangeable. An element usually contains two different kinds of tag: a start-tag and an end-tag, with text or more markup between them. XML lets you decide which elements you want in your document and then indicate your element boundaries using the appropriate start- and end-tags for those elements. Each red is a complete instance of the color element. is only the start-tag of the element, showing where it begins; it is not the element itself. Empty elements are a special case that may be represented either as a pair of start- and end-tags with nothing between them (eg ) or as a single empty element start-tag that has a closing slash to tell the parser `don't go looking for an end-tag to match this' (eg ). [Bob DuCharme]