HTML Basics

It has to be coded correctly so the browser can read it. Do a search for HTML on Google.com

 

If you want to do it through text edit you just have to set it to plain text mode instead of rtf mode.

 

I had this same problem long ago when I first used TextEdit but I see now that you've fixed the problem by using a different program. But out of curiosity was TextEdit saving your files with the correct extension, i.e. was there an "html" extension? It's just that in the preferences there's an option that says "Add .txt extension to plain text files" which may be on by default.

Also when viewing HTML files in TextEdit you'll have to untick the "Ignore rich text commands in HTML files" if you wish to view the code without it being automatically rendered. Also as motulist and dejo have said make sure it's saved as plain text.

I've written HTML code in TextEdit before so I know it's possible to have working web pages using it.