Hi. Got a noob question here. When I click on a URL and the web page comes up with all the elements like text, colors, images, etc....

Are the web pages actually (A) completed, self-contained pages sitting on the server waiting to be retrived? Or is it more like (B) the elements that make up the web page are sitting on the server and the HTML goes gets the different elements based on the code and puts them together to display the web page? Thanks.

Hi welcome to webmaster-talk. The elements are (A) a whole single file in a html file index.html for example. When you click on a link your web browser ask the webserver for that file and displays it as a webpage.

The HTML inside that html file makes up the webpage.

For the first basics of understanding HTML see http://www.w3schools.com/html/DEFAULT.asp

I hope to help

I'm a little bit confused by the question. It sounds like you are asking if the images and all other pieces of information reside in one file, all together. If this is the case, the answer is no. Images are in separate locations. Other elements, like music files, Flash, JavaScript, and styles (CSS) are stored in separate files. HTML just glues them together, like it seems you suggested in your second (B). HTML is just a markup language: it doesn't do anything fancy, it just organizes data.

Thanks.