| 
| |
| Tag/Attribute | Description | Vers. |
| --Most TAGs-- | The following attributes may be used with most HTML tags | |
| CLASS | For identifying a set of tags in order to apply styles (p. 249) | 4 |
| EVENT | For triggering a script (p. 294) | 4 |
| ID | For identifying particular tags for JavaScript functions and styles (p. 250) | 4 |
| STYLE | For adding local style sheet information (p. 248) | 4 |
| TITLE | For labeling elements with tooltips (p.320) | 4 |
| !-- | For inserting invisible comments (p. 56) | 4 |
| !DOCTYPE | Theoretically required. For indicating version of HTML used (p. 35) | 4 |
| A | For creating links and anchors (p. 118) | 4 |
| ACCESSKEY | For adding a keyboard shortcut to a link (p. 126) | 4 |
| EVENT | For triggering a script (p. 294) | 4 |
| HREF | For specifying URL of page or name of anchor that link goes to | 4 |
| NAME | For marking a specific area of page that a link might jump to (p. 120) | 4 |
| TABORDER | For defining the order in which the Tab key takes the visitor through links and form elements (p. 127) | 4 |
| TARGET | For specifying a particular window or frame for a link (pp. 122, 123) | 4 |
| ADDRESS | For formatting the e-mail address of the Web page designer (p. 46) | 4 |
| APPLET | For inserting applets (p. 237) | 4D |
| CODE | For specifying the URL of the applet's code | 4D |
| WIDTH, HEIGHT | For specifying width and height of an applet | 4D |
| AREA | For specifying coordinates of image maps (p. 130) | 4 |
| ACCESSKEY | For adding a keyboard shortcut to a particular region of the map | 4 |
| COORDS | For giving coordinates of area in image map | 4 |
| HREF | For specifying destination URL of link in area in image map | 4 |
| NOHREF | For making a click in image map have no effect. | 4 |
| SHAPE | For specifying shape of area in image map | 4 |
| TARGET | For specifying window or frame that link should be displayed in | 4 |
| B | For displaying text in boldface (p. 46) | 4 |
| BASE | 4 | |
| HREF | For specifying the URL to be used to generate relative URLs (p. 123) | 4 |
| TARGET | For specifying the default target for the links on the page (p. 123) | 4 |
| BASEFONT | For specifying default font specifications throughout page (p. 47) | 4D |
| COLOR | For specifying the default color for text | 4D |
| FONT | For specifying the default font for text | 4D |
| SIZE | For specifying the default size for text | 4D |
| BGSOUND | For inserting background sound for page (p. 225) | IE |
| LOOP | For specifying how many times sound should play | IE |
| SRC | For specifying URL of sound | IE |
| BIG | For making text bigger than surrounding text (p. 49) | 4 |
| BLINK | For making text disappear and reappear (p. 55) | N |
| BLOCKQUOTE | For setting off block of text on page (p. 110) | 4 |
| BODY | For enclosing main section of page (p. 36) | 4 |
| ALINK, LINK, VLINK | For specifying color of active links, new links, and visited links (p. 133) | 4D |
| BACKGROUND | For specifying a background image (p. 99) | 4D |
| BGCOLOR | For specifying the background color (p. 98) | 4D |
| LEFTMARGIN, | ||
| TOPMARGIN | For specifying left and top margins (p. 101) | IE |
| TEXT | For specifying color of text (p. 50) | 4D |
| BR | For creating a line break (p. 102) | 4 |
| CLEAR | For stopping text wrap (pp. 90, 150) | 4D |
| BUTTON | For creating buttons (pp. 207, 209, 296) | 4 |
| ACCESSKEY | For adding a keyboard shortcut to a button | 4 |
| EVENT | For associating the button with a script | 4 |
| NAME | For identifying buttons (perhaps for a JavaScript function) | 4 |
| VALUE | For specifying what kind of button to create | 4 |
| CAPTION | For creating a caption for a table (p. 145) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For placing caption above or below table | 4D |
| CENTER | For centering text, images, or other elements (p. 100) | 4D |
| CITE | For marking text as a citation (p. 46) | 4 |
| CODE | For marking text as computer code (p. 54) | 4 |
| COL | For joining columns in a table into a non-structural group (p. 160) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For specifying alignment of columns in column group | 4 |
| SPAN | For specifying number of columns in column group | 4 |
| COLGROUP | For joining columns in a table into a structural column group (p. 160) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For specifying alignment of columns in column group | 4 |
| SPAN | For specifying number of columns in column group | 4 |
| DD | For marking a definition in a list (p. 140) | 4 |
| DEL | To mark deleted text by striking it out (p. 53) | 4 |
| DIV | For dividing a page into logical sections (p. 253) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For aligning a given section to left, right, or center | 4D |
| CLASS | For giving a name to each class of divisions | 4 |
| ID | For giving a unique name to a particular division | 4 |
| DL | For creating a definition list (p. 140) | 4 |
| DT | For marking a term to be defined in a list (p. 140) | 4 |
| EM | For emphasizing text, usually with italics (p. 46) | 4 |
| EMBED | For adding multimedia (and others) to pages (pp. 222, 234) | N+IE |
| ALIGN | For aligning controls | N+IE |
| AUTOSTART | For making multimedia event begin automatically | N+IE |
| CONTROLS | For displaying play, pause, rewind buttons | N+IE |
| LOOP | For determining if multimedia event should play more than once | N+IE |
| SRC | For specifying URL of multimedia file | N+IE |
| WIDTH, HEIGHT | For specifying size of controls | N+IE |
| FIELDSET | For grouping a set of form elements together (p. 211) | 4 |
| FONT | For changing the size, face, and color of individual letters or words | 4D |
| COLOR | For changing text color (p. 51) | 4D |
| FACE | For changing text font (p. 45) | 4D |
| SIZE | For changing text size (p. 48) | 4D |
| FORM | For creating fill-in forms (p. 193) | 4 |
| ACTION | For giving URL of CGI script for form | 4 |
| METHOD | For determining how form should be processed | 4 |
| FRAME | For creating frames (p. 168) | 4 |
| BORDER | For determining thickness of frame borders (p. 178) | N |
| BORDERCOLOR | For determining color of frame borders (p. 177) | N |
| FRAMEBORDER | For displaying or hiding frame borders (p. 179) | 4 |
| FRAMESPACING | For adding space between frames (p. 178) | IE |
| NAME | For naming frame so it can be used as target (p. 168) | 4 |
| NORESIZE | For keeping users from resizing a frame (p. 180) | 4 |
| MARGINWIDTH MARGINHEIGHT | For specifying a frame's left and right, and top and bottom margins (p. 175) | 4 |
| SCROLLING | For displaying or hiding a frame's scroll bars (p. 176) | 4 |
| SRC | For specifying initial URL to be displayed in frame (p. 168) | 4 |
| TARGET | For specifying which frame a link should be opened in (pp. 181, 182) | 4 |
| FRAMESET | For defining a frameset (p. 168) | 4 |
| BORDER | For determining thickness of frame borders (p. 178) | N |
| BORDERCOLOR | For determining color of frame borders (p. 177) | N |
| COLS | For determining number and size of frames (pp. 170, 171) | 4 |
| FRAMEBORDER | For displaying or hiding frame borders (p. 179) | 4 |
| FRAMESPACING | For adding space between frames (p. 178) | IE |
| ROWS | For determining number and size of frames (pp. 170, 171) | 4 |
| Hn | For creating headers (p. 38) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For aligning headers | 4D |
| HEAD | For creating head section of page (p. 36) | 4 |
| HR | For creating horizontal rules (p. 95) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For aligning horizontal rules | 4D |
| NOSHADE | For displaying horizontal rules without shading | 4D |
| SIZE | For specifying height of horizontal rule | 4D |
| WIDTH | For specifying width of horizontal rule | 4D |
| HTML | For identifying a text document as an HTML document (p. 35) | 4 |
| I | For displaying text in italics (p. 46) | 4 |
| IFRAME | For creating floating frames (p. 174) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For aligning floating frames | 4D |
| FRAMEBORDER | For displaying or hiding frame borders (p. 179) | 4 |
| NAME | For specifying the name of the floating frame, to be used as a target | 4 |
| WIDTH, HEIGHT | For specifying size of floating frame | 4 |
| SCROLLING | For displaying or hiding scroll bars (p. 176) | 4 |
| SRC | For specifying the URL of the initial page | 4 |
| IMG | For inserting images on a page (p. 82) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For aligning images (p. 93) and for wrapping text around images (pp. 88, 89) | 4D |
| ALT | For offering alternate text that is displayed if image is not (p. 83) | 4 |
| BORDER | For specifying the thickness of the border, if any (pp. 82, 128) | 4D |
| CONTROLS | For displaying or hiding video controls (p. 235) | IE |
| DYNSRC | For specifying URL of video file (p. 235) | IE |
| HSPACE, VSPACE | For specifying amount of space above and below, and to the sides of image (p. 91) | 4D |
| LOOP | For specifying number of repeats of video file (p. 235) | IE |
| LOWSRC | For specifying URL of low resolution version of image (p. 87) | N+IE |
| SRC | For specifying URL of image (p. 82) | 4 |
| START | For determining when video should begin (p. 235) | IE |
| USEMAP | For specifying the image map that should be used with the referenced image (p. 130) | 4 |
| WIDTH, HEIGHT | For specifying size of image so that page is loaded more quickly, or for scaling (pp. 84, 92) | 4 |
| INPUT | For creating form elements (pp. 196, 197, 199, 200, 203, 205, 206, 208) | 4 |
| ACCESSKEY | For adding a keyboard shortcut to a form element (p. 214) | 4 |
| CHECKED | For marking a radio button or check box by default (pp. 199, 200) | 4 |
| DISABLED | For disabling form elements (p. 215) | 4 |
| EVENT | For triggering a script with an event like ONFOCUS, ONBLUR, etc. | 4 |
| MAXLENGTH | For determining maximum amount of characters that can be entered in form element (pp. 196, 197) | 4 |
| NAME | For identifying data collected by this element | 4 |
| SIZE | For specifying width of text or password box (pp. 196, 197) | 4 |
| SRC | For specifying URL of active image (p. 210) | 4 |
| READONLY | For keeping visitors from changing certain form elements (p. 216) | 4 |
| TABORDER | For specifying the order in which the Tab key should take a visitor through the links and form elements (p. 213) | 4 |
| TYPE | For determining type of form element | 4 |
| VALUE | For specifying initial value of form element | 4 |
| INS | For marking inserted text with an underline (p. 53) | 4 |
| KBD | For marking keyboard text (p. 54) | 4 |
| label | For labeling form elements (p. 212) | 4 |
| FOR | For specifying which form element the label belongs to | 4 |
| LAYER | For positioning elements (p. 114) | N |
| LEGEND | For labeling fieldsets (p. 211) | 4 |
| LI | For creating a list item (p. 136) | 4 |
| TYPE | For determining which symbols should begin the list item | 4D |
| VALUE | For determining the initial value of the first list item | 4D |
| LINK | For using an external style sheet (p. 247) | 4 |
| MAP | For creating a client-side image map (p. 130) | 4 |
| NAME | For naming map so it can be referenced later | 4 |
| MARQUEE | For creating moving text (p. 236) | IE |
| BEHAVIOR | For controlling how the text should move (scroll, slide, alternate) | IE |
| DIRECTION | For controlling if the text moves from left to right or right to left | IE |
| LOOP | For specifying how many times the text should come across the screen | IE |
| SCORLLAMOUNT | For specifying amount of space between each marquee repetition | IE |
| SCROLLDELAY | For specifying amount of time between each marquee repetition | IE |
| META | 4 | |
| HTTP-EQUIV | For creating automatic jumps to other pages (p. 321) and setting the default scripting language (p. 299) | 4 |
| NAME | For adding extra information to the Web page (pp. 340, 341, 342, 343) | 4 |
| NOBR | For keeping all the enclosed elements on one line (p. 103) | N+IE |
| NOFRAMES | For providing alternatives to frames (p. 185) | 4 |
| NOSCRIPT | For providing alternatives to scripts (p. 298) | 4 |
| OBJECT | The W3C would like this tag to eventually replace the IMG and APPLET tags. It is not currently supported very well. | 4 |
| OL | For creating ordered lists (p. 136) | 4 |
| TYPE | For specifying the symbols that should begin each list item | 4D |
| START | For specifying the initial value of the first list item | 4D |
| OPTGROUP | For dividing a menu into submenus (p. 202) | 4 |
| OPTION | For creating the individual options in a form menu (p. 201) | 4 |
| SELECTED | For making a menu option be selected by default in a blank form | 4 |
| VALUE | For specifying the initial value of a menu option | 4 |
| P | For creating new paragraphs (p. 39) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For aligning paragraphs | 4D |
| PRE | For displaying text exactly as it appears in HTML document (p. 113) | 4 |
| Q | For quoting short passages of text (p. 111) | 4 |
| S | (Same as STRIKE) For displaying text with a line through it (p. 53) | 4D |
| SAMP | For displaying sample textÑin a monospaced font (p. 54) | 4 |
| SCRIPT | For adding “automatic” scripts to a page (p. 292) | 4 |
| CHARSET | For specifying the character set an external script is written in (p. 293) | 4 |
| LANGUAGE | For specifying the scripting language the script is written in | 4D |
| SRC | For referencing an external script (p. 293) | 4 |
| TYPE | For specifying the scripting language the script is written in | 4 |
| SELECT | For creating menus in forms (p. 201) | 4 |
| NAME | For identifying the data collected by the menu | 4 |
| MULTIPLE | For allowing users to choose more than one option in the menu | 4 |
| SIZE | For specifying the number of items initially visible in the menu | 4 |
| SMALL | For decreasing the size of text (p. 49) | 4 |
| SPAN | For creating custom character styles (p. 255) | 4 |
| CLASS | For naming individual custom character styles | 4 |
| ID | For identifying particular HTML elements | 4 |
| STRIKE | (Same as S) For displaying text with a line through it (p. 53) | 4D |
| STRONG | For emphasizing text logically, usually in boldface (p. 46) | 4 |
| STYLE | For adding style sheet information to a page (p. 244) | 4 |
| SUB | For creating subscripts (p. 52) | 4 |
| SUP | For creating superscripts (p. 52) | 4 |
| TABLE | For creating tables (p. 145) | 4 |
| BGCOLOR | For specifying the background color of the table (p. 158) | 4D |
| BORDER | For specifying the thickness, if any, of the border (p. 146) | 4 |
| BORDERCOLOR | For specifying a solid color for the border (p. 146) | IE |
| BORDERCOLORDARK | For specifying the darker (shaded) color of the border (p. 146) | IE |
| BORDERCOLORLIGHT | For specifying the lighter (highlighted) color of the border (p. 146) | IE |
| CELLPADDING | For specifying the amount of space between a cell's contents and its borders (p. 155) | 4 |
| CELLSPACING | For specifying the amount of space between cells (p. 155) | 4 |
| FRAME | For displaying external borders (p. 163) | 4 |
| HEIGHT | For specifying the height of the table (p. 148) | N+IE |
| RULES | For displaying internal borders (p. 164) | 4 |
| WIDTH | For specifying the size of the table (p. 148) | 4 |
| TBODY | For identifying the body of the table (p. 162) | 4 |
| TD; TH | For creating regular and header cells, respectively, in a table (p. 145) | 4 |
| ALIGN, VALIGN | For aligning a cell's contents horizontally or vertically (p. 154) | 4 |
| BGCOLOR | For changing the background color of a cell (p. 158) | 4D |
| COLSPAN | For spanning a cell across more than one column (p. 152) | 4 |
| NOWRAP | For keeping a cell's contents on one line (p. 165) | 4D |
| ROWSPAN | For spanning a cell across more than one row (p. 153) | 4 |
| WIDTH, HEIGHT | For specifying the size of the cell (p. 148) | 4D |
| TEXTAREA | For creating text block entry areas in a form (p. 198) | 4 |
| ACCESSKEY | For adding a keyboard shortcut to a text area | 4 |
| NAME | For identifying the data that is gathered with the text block | 4 |
| ROWS, COLS | For specifying the number of rows and columns in the text block | 4 |
| TFOOT, THEAD | For identifying the footer and header area of a table (p. 162) | 4 |
| ALIGN | For aligning the footer or header cells (p. 154) | 4 |
| TITLE | Required. For creating the title of the page in title bar area (p. 37) | 4 |
| TR | For creating rows in a table (p. 145) | 4 |
| ALIGN, VALIGN | For aligning contents of row horizontally or vertically (p. 154) | 4D |
| BGCOLOR | For changing color of entire row (p. 158) | 4D |
| TT | For displaying text in monospaced font (p. 54) | 4 |
| U | For displaying text with line underneath it (p. 53) | 4D |
| UL | For creating unordered lists (p. 138) | 4 |
| TYPE | For specifying the type of symbols that should precede each list item | 4D |
| WBR | For creating discretional line breaks in text enclosed in NOBR tags (p. 104) | N+IE |
| Page numbers are omitted for those attributes discussed on the same page as the tag to which they belong.
In the “Vers.” or version column, I've indicated if the tag or attribute belongs to HTML 4, or if it is only recognized by Netscape (N), by Internet Explorer (IE), or by both (N+IE). Just because a tag belongs to HTML 4 does not mean that the browsers support it. This is especially true for versions less than 4. Deprecated tags are marked with a D in the Vers. column. Although the W3C discourages their use, browsers are expected to continue to support these tags for some time. | ||
©Copyright 1998, 1999 by Elizabeth Castro. All rights reserved.
Please don't copy this page. Instead, link to it! Thanks.
For more information on HTML tags, please consult the referenced page (that follows each tag's description above) in my book, HTML 4 for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, Fourth Edition, published by Peachpit Press.