How to view the HTML source code of a web page?

All Internet browsers allow users to view the HTML source code of any of web page they visit. The following sections contain information on the multiple ways to view the source code in each of the major browsers. To proceed, choose and entry from the list below and follow the instructions for that section.

Introductory information

When viewing the source code of a web page it is important that you keep in mind that information and code not processed by the server won't appear. For example, almost all Internet search engines process information on the server and then display the results on a web page. In other words, you can view the code that makes up the results page, but you cannot view the search engine's source code.

This rule applies to all server side scripts, SSI, and programming code. Therefore, features such as search engines, forums, polls, chat, etc. will not display their code. Copying the information from the source code may cause errors or direct you back to the page from which you copied the information.

Microsoft Internet Explorer users

To view the source code of a web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer, follow the steps below.

Press CTRL + U on you computer's keyboard.

Open Internet Explorer and navigate to the web page of your choice.
Press the Alt key to bring up the browser's menu bar.
Select View, and the Source from the drop-down menu that appears.

Tip: With the latest versions of Internet Explorer, pressing the F12 key brings up the DOM tool. This tool provides much more interaction with the source code and CSS settings, allowing users to see how changes in the code affect the web page immediately.

Mozilla Firefox and Netscape users

To view the source code of a web page in Mozilla Firefox, follow the steps below.

Press CTRL + U on you computer's keyboard.

Open Mozilla Firefox and navigate to the web page of your choice.
Press the Alt key to bring up the browser's menu bar.
Select Tools, Web Developer, and then Page Source.

Tip: With the latest versions of Firefox, pressing the F12 key brings up the interactive developer tool. This tool provides much more interaction with the source code and CSS settings, allowing users to see how changes in the code affect the web page immediately.

View a section of the page's source code

Highlight the portion of a web page for which you'd like to view the source code.
Right-click that highlighted section, and then click View Selection Source.

Tip: Use the Firebug add-on to not only view the source code of a page but change and view those changes live through the browser.

Google Chrome users

To view the source code of a web page in Google Chrome, follow the steps below.

Press CTRL + U on you computer's keyboard.

Open Chrome and navigate the web page of your choice.
Click on Customize and control Google Chrome

icon in the upper right-hand side of the browser window.
From the drop-down menu that appears, select More tools and then View source.

TIP: With the latest versions of Chrome, pressing the F12 key brings up the interactive developer tool. This tool provides much more interaction with the source code and CSS settings, allowing users to see how changes in the code affect the web page immediately.

Apple Safari Users

Press Command + Option + U on your keyboard.

Right-click a blank part of the web page and select Show page source from the drop-down menu that appears.

Open the Safari browser and navigate to the web page of your choice.
Select the Develop menu.
Choose the Show page source option.

Opera users

To view the source code of a web page in Opera, follow the steps below.

Press CTRL + U on you computer's keyboard.

Open Opera and navigate to the web page of your choice.
Click the Customize and control Opera

button in the upper right-hand corner of the browser window.
From the drop-down menu that appears, move your mouse cursor over Developer and then click View page source.

Android phone running Chrome

Open the Google Chrome Internet browser on your phone.
Open the web page whose source code you'd like to view.
Tap once in the address bar and then move your cursor to the front of the URL.
Type view-source: and press Enter or Go.

Tip: For example, to view the code for our homepage you would type view-source:http://www.howtodoall.com