An Example of Structure
In HTML
Here's a typical paragraph.
- Item one has an anchor
- Here's item two.
...
...
The following are not valid tags: < h1>Structural Example
A paragraph...
Structural Example
A paragraph...
NAMES The element name immediately follows the tag open delimiter. Names consist of a letter followed by up to 33 letters, digits, periods, or hyphens. Names are not case sensitive. For example: A H1 h1 another.name name-with-hyphens ATTRIBUTES May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 3 In a start tag, whitespace and attributes are allowed between the element name and the closing delimiter. An attribute consists of a name, an equal sign, and a value. Whitespace is allowed around the equal sign. The value is either: A string literal, delimited by single quotes or double quotes, or A name token; that is, a sequence of letters, digits, periods, or hyphens. For example:
The length of an attribute value (after replacing entity and
numeric character referencees) is limited to 1024 characters.
NOTE 1: Some implementations allowed any character
except space or '>' in a name token, for
example . As a result,
there are many documents that contain
attribute values that should be quoted but
are not. While parser implementators are
encouraged to support this idiom, its use in
future documents is stictly prohibited.
NOTE 2: Some implementations also consider any
occurence of the > character to signal the
end of a tag. For compatibility with such
implementations, it may be necessary to
represent > with an entity or numeric
character reference; for example: -
can be written as
-
Character Data
The charcters between the tags represent text in the ISO-Latin-1
character set, which is a superset of ASCII. Because certain
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 4
characters will be interpreted as markup, they should be "escaped";
that is, represented by markup -- entity or numeric character
references. For example:
When a<b, we can show that...
Brought to you by AT&T
The HTML DTD includes entities for each of the non-ASCII characters
so that one may reference them by name if it is inconvenient to
enter them directly:
Kurt Gödel was a famous logician and mathematician.
NOTE 1: To ensure that a string of characters has no
markup, it is sufficient to represent all
occurrences of <, >, and & by character or
entity references.
NOTE 2: There are SGML features (CDATA, RCDATA) to
allow most <, >, and & characters to be
entered without the use of entity or
character references. Because these features
tend to be used and implemented
incosistently, they are not employed in this
version of the HTML DTD.
An earlier HTML specification included an XMPelement whose syntax is
not expressible in SGML. Inside the XMP, no
markup was recognized except the end
tag. While implementations are encouraged to
support this idiom, its use is obsolete.
COMMENTS
To include comments in an HTML document that will be ignored by the
parser, surround them with . After the comment
delimiter, all text up to the next occurrence of -- is ignored.
Hence comments cannot be nested. Whitespace is allowed between the
closing -- and >. (But not between the opening
J.R. Brown
JimquickPost News, Jumquick, CT 01234
Tel (123) 456 7890
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1 The BASE element in HTML BASE This element allows the URL of the document itself to be recorded in situations in which the document may be read out of context. URLs within the document may be in a "partial" form relative to this base address. Where the base address is not specified, the reader will use the URL it used to access the document to resolve any relative URLs. The one attribute is: HREF the URL May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1 BlockQuote in HTML BLOCKQUOTE The BLOCKQUOTE element allows text quoted from another source to be rendered specially. Typical rendering A typical rendering might be a slight extra left and right indent, and/or italic font. BLOCKQUOTE causes a paragraph break, and typically a line or so of white space will be allowed between it and any text before or after it. Single-font rendition may for example put a vertical line of ">" characters down the left margin to indicate quotation in the Internet mail style. Example I think it endsSoft you now, the fair Ophelia. Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered.but I am not sure. May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1 Heading elements in HTML HEADINGS Six levels of heading are supported. (Note that a hypertext node within a hypertext work tends to need fewer levels of heading than a work whose only structure is given by the nesting of headings.) A heading element implies all the font changes, paragraph breaks before and after, and white space (for example) necessary to render the heading. Further character emphasis or paragraph marks are not required in HTML. H1 is the highest level of heading, and is recommended for the start of a hypertext node. It is suggested that the the text of the first heading be suitable for a reader who is already browsing in related information, in contrast to the title tag which should identify the node in a wider context. The heading elements are
, , , , ,
It is not normal practice to jump from one header to a header level
more than one below, for example for follow an H1 with an H3.
Although this is legal, it is discouraged, as it may produce
strange results for example when generating other representations
from the HTML.
Example:
This is a heading
Here is some text
Second level heading
Here is some more text.
Parser Note:
Parsers should not require any specific order to heading elements,
even if the heading level increases by more than one between
successive headings.
Typical Rendering
H1 Bold very large font, centered. One or two
lines clear space between this and anything
following. If printed on paper, start new
page.
H2 Bold, large font,, flush left against left
margin, no indent. One or two clear lines
above and below.
H3 Italic, large font, slightly indented from
the left margin. One or two clear lines above
and below.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 2
H4 Bold, normal font, indented more than H3. One
clear line above and below.
H5 Italic, normal font, indented as H4. One
clear line above.
H6 Bold, indented same as normal text, more than
H5. One clear line above.
These typical values are just an indication, and it is up to the
designer of the presentation software to define the styles. The
reader may have options to customize these. When writing documents,
you should assume that whatever is done it is designed to have the
same sort of effect as the styles above.
The rendering software is responsible for generating suitable
vertical white space between elements, so it is NOT normal or
required to follow a heading element with a paragraph mark.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1
The IMG Element in HTML
IMG: EMBEDDED IMAGES
Status: Extra
The IMG element allows another document to be inserted inline. The
document is normally an icon or small graphic, etc. This element is
NOT intended for embedding other HTML text.
Browsers which are not able to display inline images ignore IMG
elements. Authors should note that some browsers will be able to
display (or print) linked graphics but not inline graphics. If the
graphic is essential, it may be wiser to make a link to it rather
than to put it inline. If the graphic is essentially decorative,
then IMG is appropriate.
The IMG element is empty: it has no closing tag. It has two
attributes:
SRC The value of this attribute is the URL of the
document to be embedded. Its syntax is the
same as that of the HREF attribute of the A
tag. SRC is mandatory.
ALIGN Take values TOP or MIDDLE or BOTTOM, defining
whether the tops or middles of bottoms of the
graphics and text should be aligned
vertically.
ALT Optional alternative text as an alternative
to the graphics for display in text-only
environments.
Note that IMG elements are allowed within anchors.
Example
Warning: < IMG SRC ="triangle.gif" ALT="Warning:"> This must b
e done by a
qualified technician.
< A HREF="Go.html">< IMG SRC ="Button.ps" ALT="GO">
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1
ISINDEX element in HTML
ISINDEX
This element informs the reader that the document is an index
document. As well as reading it, the reader may use a keyword
search.
The node may be queried with a keyword search by suffixing the node
address with a question mark, followed by a list of keywords
separated by plus signs. See the network address format .
Note that this tag is normally generated automatically by a server.
If it is added by hand to an HTML document, then the client will
assume that the server can handle a search on the document.
Obviously the server must have this capability for it to work:
simply adding , , ,
It is not normal practice to jump from one header to a header level
more than one below, for example for follow an H1 with an H3.
Although this is legal, it is discouraged, as it may produce
strange results for example when generating other representations
from the HTML.
Example:
This is a heading
Here is some text
Second level heading
Here is some more text.
Parser Note:
Parsers should not require any specific order to heading elements,
even if the heading level increases by more than one between
successive headings.
Typical Rendering
H1 Bold very large font, centered. One or two
lines clear space between this and anything
following. If printed on paper, start new
page.
H2 Bold, large font,, flush left against left
margin, no indent. One or two clear lines
above and below.
H3 Italic, large font, slightly indented from
the left margin. One or two clear lines above
and below.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 2
H4 Bold, normal font, indented more than H3. One
clear line above and below.
H5 Italic, normal font, indented as H4. One
clear line above.
H6 Bold, indented same as normal text, more than
H5. One clear line above.
These typical values are just an indication, and it is up to the
designer of the presentation software to define the styles. The
reader may have options to customize these. When writing documents,
you should assume that whatever is done it is designed to have the
same sort of effect as the styles above.
The rendering software is responsible for generating suitable
vertical white space between elements, so it is NOT normal or
required to follow a heading element with a paragraph mark.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1
The IMG Element in HTML
IMG: EMBEDDED IMAGES
Status: Extra
The IMG element allows another document to be inserted inline. The
document is normally an icon or small graphic, etc. This element is
NOT intended for embedding other HTML text.
Browsers which are not able to display inline images ignore IMG
elements. Authors should note that some browsers will be able to
display (or print) linked graphics but not inline graphics. If the
graphic is essential, it may be wiser to make a link to it rather
than to put it inline. If the graphic is essentially decorative,
then IMG is appropriate.
The IMG element is empty: it has no closing tag. It has two
attributes:
SRC The value of this attribute is the URL of the
document to be embedded. Its syntax is the
same as that of the HREF attribute of the A
tag. SRC is mandatory.
ALIGN Take values TOP or MIDDLE or BOTTOM, defining
whether the tops or middles of bottoms of the
graphics and text should be aligned
vertically.
ALT Optional alternative text as an alternative
to the graphics for display in text-only
environments.
Note that IMG elements are allowed within anchors.
Example
Warning: < IMG SRC ="triangle.gif" ALT="Warning:"> This must b
e done by a
qualified technician.
< A HREF="Go.html">< IMG SRC ="Button.ps" ALT="GO">
,
It is not normal practice to jump from one header to a header level
more than one below, for example for follow an H1 with an H3.
Although this is legal, it is discouraged, as it may produce
strange results for example when generating other representations
from the HTML.
Example:
This is a heading
Here is some text
Second level heading
Here is some more text.
Parser Note:
Parsers should not require any specific order to heading elements,
even if the heading level increases by more than one between
successive headings.
Typical Rendering
H1 Bold very large font, centered. One or two
lines clear space between this and anything
following. If printed on paper, start new
page.
H2 Bold, large font,, flush left against left
margin, no indent. One or two clear lines
above and below.
H3 Italic, large font, slightly indented from
the left margin. One or two clear lines above
and below.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 2
H4 Bold, normal font, indented more than H3. One
clear line above and below.
H5 Italic, normal font, indented as H4. One
clear line above.
H6 Bold, indented same as normal text, more than
H5. One clear line above.
These typical values are just an indication, and it is up to the
designer of the presentation software to define the styles. The
reader may have options to customize these. When writing documents,
you should assume that whatever is done it is designed to have the
same sort of effect as the styles above.
The rendering software is responsible for generating suitable
vertical white space between elements, so it is NOT normal or
required to follow a heading element with a paragraph mark.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1
The IMG Element in HTML
IMG: EMBEDDED IMAGES
Status: Extra
The IMG element allows another document to be inserted inline. The
document is normally an icon or small graphic, etc. This element is
NOT intended for embedding other HTML text.
Browsers which are not able to display inline images ignore IMG
elements. Authors should note that some browsers will be able to
display (or print) linked graphics but not inline graphics. If the
graphic is essential, it may be wiser to make a link to it rather
than to put it inline. If the graphic is essentially decorative,
then IMG is appropriate.
The IMG element is empty: it has no closing tag. It has two
attributes:
SRC The value of this attribute is the URL of the
document to be embedded. Its syntax is the
same as that of the HREF attribute of the A
tag. SRC is mandatory.
ALIGN Take values TOP or MIDDLE or BOTTOM, defining
whether the tops or middles of bottoms of the
graphics and text should be aligned
vertically.
ALT Optional alternative text as an alternative
to the graphics for display in text-only
environments.
Note that IMG elements are allowed within anchors.
Example
Warning: < IMG SRC ="triangle.gif" ALT="Warning:"> This must b
e done by a
qualified technician.
< A HREF="Go.html">< IMG SRC ="Button.ps" ALT="GO">
This is a heading
Here is some textSecond level heading
Here is some more text. Parser Note: Parsers should not require any specific order to heading elements, even if the heading level increases by more than one between successive headings. Typical Rendering H1 Bold very large font, centered. One or two lines clear space between this and anything following. If printed on paper, start new page. H2 Bold, large font,, flush left against left margin, no indent. One or two clear lines above and below. H3 Italic, large font, slightly indented from the left margin. One or two clear lines above and below. May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 2 H4 Bold, normal font, indented more than H3. One clear line above and below. H5 Italic, normal font, indented as H4. One clear line above. H6 Bold, indented same as normal text, more than H5. One clear line above. These typical values are just an indication, and it is up to the designer of the presentation software to define the styles. The reader may have options to customize these. When writing documents, you should assume that whatever is done it is designed to have the same sort of effect as the styles above. The rendering software is responsible for generating suitable vertical white space between elements, so it is NOT normal or required to follow a heading element with a paragraph mark. May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1 The IMG Element in HTML IMG: EMBEDDED IMAGES Status: Extra The IMG element allows another document to be inserted inline. The document is normally an icon or small graphic, etc. This element is NOT intended for embedding other HTML text. Browsers which are not able to display inline images ignore IMG elements. Authors should note that some browsers will be able to display (or print) linked graphics but not inline graphics. If the graphic is essential, it may be wiser to make a link to it rather than to put it inline. If the graphic is essentially decorative, then IMG is appropriate. The IMG element is empty: it has no closing tag. It has two attributes: SRC The value of this attribute is the URL of the document to be embedded. Its syntax is the same as that of the HREF attribute of the A tag. SRC is mandatory. ALIGN Take values TOP or MIDDLE or BOTTOM, defining whether the tops or middles of bottoms of the graphics and text should be aligned vertically. ALT Optional alternative text as an alternative to the graphics for display in text-only environments. Note that IMG elements are allowed within anchors. Example Warning: < IMG SRC ="triangle.gif" ALT="Warning:"> This must b e done by a qualified technician. < A HREF="Go.html">< IMG SRC ="Button.ps" ALT="GO">-
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 2
- Term the first
- definition paragraph is reasonably long but is still displayed clearly
- Term2 follows
- Definition of term2
- Term
- definition paragraph
- Term2
- Definition of term2
- list element
- another list element ...
- When you get to the station, leave by the southern exit, on platform one.
- Turn left to face toward the mountain
- Walk for a mile or so until you reach the "Asquith Arms" then
- Wait and see...
to put white space around heading, list, address or blockquote elements. It is the responsibility of the rendering software to generate that white space. An empty paragraph has undefined effect and should be avoided. Typical rendering Typically, paragraphs are surrounded by a small vertical space (of a line or half a line). This is not the case (typically) within ADDRESS or (ever) within PRE elements. With some implementations, normal paragraphs may have a small extra left indent on the first line. Examples of use
What to do
This is a one paragraph.
This is a second.
This is a third. Bad example
What not to do
I found that on my XYZ browser it looked prettier to me if I put some paragraph tags
- Around lists, and
- Inside headings.
None of the paragraph tags in this example should be there.
See also Line Break May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1 Line Breaks in HTML LINE BREAK The line break element marks that a new line must be started at the given point. Typical rendering A new line with indent the same as that of line-wrapped text. Examples Tim Berners-LeeWorld Wide Web project
CERN
1211 Geneva 23
Switzerland I think that I shall never see
A hoarding lovely as a tree
In fact, unless the hoardings fall
I'll never see a tree at all.
See also: Paragraph marks May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1 Horizontal Rules in HTML HORIZONTAL RULE Typical Rendering Some sort of divider between sections of text such as a full width horizontal rule or equivalent graphic. Example The horizontal rule is typically used for separating heading information (when more than just a heading) from content, etc.
The Albatross
The Bumstead Monthly, 1948 The following information is culled from this and suvccessive issues of the magazine. Thanks are due to the editor-in-chief, A.R. Bunstead, for her help and advice.Copyright IQR Inc.
This recording may not be sold, resold, hired out, used, or talked about in too great a depth without the publisher's written or videotaped consent.The Albatross, most fabled and infamous of .. May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1 The PRE element in HTML PRE: PREFORMATTED TEXT Preformatted elements in HTML are displayed with text in a fixed width font, and so are suitable for text which has been formatted for a teletype by some existing formatting system. The optional attribute is: WIDTH This attribute gives the maximum number of characters which will occur on a line. It allows the presentation system to select a suitable font and indentation. Where the WIDTH attribute is not recognized, it is recommended that a width of 80 be assumed. Where WIDTH is supported, it is recommended that at least widths of 40, 80 and 132 characters be presented optimally, with other widths being rounded up. Within a PRE element, Line boundaries within the text are rendered as a move to the beginning of the next line, except for one immediately following or immediately preceding a tag. The
tag should not be used. If found, it should be rendered as a move to the beginning of the next line. Anchor elements and character highlighting elements may be used. Elements which define paragraph formatting (Headings, Address, etc) must not be used. The ASCII Horizontal Tab (HT) character must be interpreted as the smallest positive nonzero number of spaces which will leave the number of characters so far on the line as a multiple of 8. Its use is not recommended however. EXAMPLE OF USE
This is an example line
NOTE: HIGHLIGHTING
Within a preformatted element, the constraint that the rendering
must be on a fixed horizontal character pitch may limit or prevent
the ability of the renderer to render highlighting elements
specially.
NOTE: MARGINS
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 2
The above references to the "beginning of a new line" must not be
taken as implying that the renderer is forbidden from using a
(constant) left indent for rendering preformatted text. The left
indent may of course be constrained by the width required.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1
The TITLE element in HTML
TITLE
The title of a document is specified by the TITLE element. The
TITLE element must occur in the HEAD of the document.
There may only be one title in any document. It should identify the
content of the document in a fairly wide context.
It may not contain anchors, paragraph marks, or highlighting. The
title may be used to identify the node in a history list, to label
the window displaying the node, etc. It is not normally displayed
in the text of a document itself. Contrast titles with headings .
The title should ideally be less than 64 characters in length. That
is, many applications will display document titles in window
titles, menus, etc where there is only limited room. Whilst there
is no limit on the length of a title (as it may be automatically
generated from other data), information providers are warned that
it may be truncated if long.
EXAMPLES OF USE
Appropriate titles might be
EM element. A citation is
typically italic and has no formal necessary structure:
Moby Dick is a book title.
May 18 12:43 1994 HTML Specification Connolly and Berners-Lee Page 1
Obsolete Elements of HTML
OBSOLETE ELEMENTS
The following elements of HTML are obsolete. It is recommended that
client implementors implement the obsolete forms for compatibility
with old servers.
PLAINTEXT
Status: Obsolete .
The empty PLAINTEXT tag terminates the HTML entity. What follows is
not SGML. In stead, there's an old HTTP convention that what
follows is an ASCII (MIME "text/plain") body.
An example if its use is: