diff --git a/lib/src/prelude/HTML.gf b/lib/src/prelude/HTML.gf
index b469b582c..1a58415f9 100644
--- a/lib/src/prelude/HTML.gf
+++ b/lib/src/prelude/HTML.gf
@@ -5,4 +5,20 @@ resource HTML = open Prelude in {
     intag : Str -> Str -> Str = \t,s -> tag t ++ s ++ endtag t ;
     intagAttr : Str -> Str -> Str -> Str = 
       \t,a,s -> ("<" + t) ++ (a + ">") ++ s ++ endtag t ;
+
+-- common formatting
+
+   document : Str -> Str = \s ->
+     intag "html" (intag "head" ("<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=UTF-8\" />") ++ intag "body" s) ;
+
+   paragraph : Str -> Str = intag "p" ;
+   heading1 : Str -> Str = intag "h1" ;
+   heading2 : Str -> Str = intag "h2" ;
+   heading3 : Str -> Str = intag "h3" ;
+
+-- for building tables
+   frameTable : Str -> Str = intagAttr "table" ("rules=all border=yes") ;
+   tr : Str -> Str = intag "tr" ;  
+   td : Str -> Str = intag "td" ;  
+   th : Str -> Str = intag "th" ;  
 }