egovision.org HTML Tags Encyclopedia

HTML Tags Encyclopaedia A-F by Name
Address

<ADDRESS> text </ADDRESS>

Defines text normally describing contact information of some kind.

NOWRAP - stops the browser from wrapping text except when <BR> tags are used.

Anchor

<A NAME="name">
<A HREF="url">text</A>

Defines either a hyperlink or a named section in a document.
Must contain either a NAME attribute or an HREF attribute, or both.
REF="relationship" - defines the relationship between this document and the HREF URL.
REV="relationship" - defines the relationship between the HREF URL and this document.
It is the opposite (REVerse) of REF.
TITLE="name" - indicates the TITLE of the document pointed to by the HREF URL.

TARGET="window" - loads the document linked by HREF into a specified window name.
This can also apply to a frame name if you're using frames
Preset TARGET names are.....
_blank - loads the link into a new blank window.
_self -loads the link into the same window.
_parent - loads the link into the parent of this document.
_top - loads the link into the full browser window (great for getting people unstuck from FRAMESETs).

Area

<AREA SHAPE="shape" ALT="text" CO-ORDS="x1,y1,x2,y2......" HREF="URL">

Only valid within MAP tags, defines areas that act as hotspots within an image.
Normally a map will have multiple AREA tags for multiple links.
SHAPE attribute can be one of RECT, CIRCLE, POLY or DEFAULT.
DEFAULT - maps all areas not already specified in another AREA tag (no co-ordinates are required).
CO-ORDS gives the co-ordinates, in pixels, measured from the upper left corner of the image, of the attributes of a shape.
RECT - co-ordinates in the form x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4 corresponting to left-top and right-bottom.
CIRCLE - x,y,radius - where x,y is the co-ordiate position of the centre point of the circle.
POLY - x1, y1, x2, y2, ... xn, yn. for each point of the polygon in turn.
NOHREF - clicks here will not cause a link to be followed.

TARGET="window" - loads a document linked by HREF into a specified window.
This can also apply to a frame name if you're using frames
Preset TARGET names are.....
_blank - loads the link into a new blank window.
_self -loads the link into the same window.
_parent - loads the link into the parent of this document.
_top - loads the link into the full browser window (great for getting people unstuck from FRAMESETs).

Base

<BASE HREF="base-address">

<BASE TARGET="target">

Valid only in the HEAD section, defines the base address of an HTML document.
This is used to set the full address of relative URL's that appear in the document.
Useful when moving an HTML document to another site without moving all the images and related documents as well, the base URL can be set to the original direectory.
The "target" is the target for all links unless specified explicitly.
Predefined target names are:
_blank - causes the link to be loaded into a new blank window.
_self - causes the link to be loaded into the same window the link was in.
_parent - causes the link to be loaded into the parent of this document.
_top - causes the link to be loaded into the full body of this window.

Base Font

<BASEFONT SIZE="number">

Defines the base size that relative FONT changes (e.g. FONT="+2") are based on. (Default is 3.)

Background Sound

<BGSOUND SRC="URL">

Calls a .wav, .au or .mid file to be played when the page loads up.
LOOP="n" - causes the file to be played n times. (n must be a whole number above zero).
LOOP="INFINITE" - is annoying.

Bold

<B> text </B>

Renders text in boldface. Also use STRONG.

Big Text

<BIG> text </BIG>

Renders text in a larger than normal style.

Blink
NETSCAPE ONLY
<BLINK> text </BLINK>

One of the all-time nasty tags.... it makes text flash on and off.
Blink is a Netscape Only tag.

Block Quote

<BLOCKQUOTE> text </BLOCKQUOTE>

<BQ> text </BQ>

Defines text that is quoted from elsewhere.
Many browsers display it indented.

NOWRAP - stops the browser from wrapping except at a BR tag.

CLEAR = "attributes" - used to position a quote after a graphic(LEFT, RIGHT, or ALL) specifying which margin should be clear.

Body

<BODY> whole-document-body </BODY>

The body tag introduces the body of the document and should be used after the head section and contain the remainder of the document.

BACKGROUND="image URL" - specifies an image file to use as the background for the page.

BGCOLOR="#rrggbb" - sets the colour to be used for the background

TEXT="#rrggbb" - sets the colour to be used for the text

LINK="#rrggbb" - sets the colour to be used for links

ALINK="#rrggbb" - sets the colour to be used for active links

VLINK="#rrggbb" - sets the colour to be used for visited links

LEFTMARGIN="number" - sets the margin at the left of the document, in pixels

TOPMARGIN="number" - sets the margin at the top of the document, in pixels

BGPROPERTIES="FIXED" - causes the BACKGROUND image to remain fixed as the document scrolls

Caption

<CAPTION> text </CAPTION>

The caption tag defines the caption of a figure or table. It is valid only within FIG or TABLE tags.

HALIGN="align" - sets the horizontal alignment . (LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER )

VALIGN="align" - sets the vertical alignment (TOP or BOTTOM)

ALIGN="align" - sets the alignment . (LEFT, RIGHT, CENTER, TOP or BOTTOM)

Center

<CENTER> text</CENTER>

Defines text that should be centered.

Citation

<CITE> text </CITE>

Renders text often in italics depending on browser presets and should be used when citing a book or other work.

Code

<CODE> text </CODE>

Renders text in a fixed width font dependant on browser presets.
Most browsers use the same font for the KBD, SAMP, TT and CODE tags.

Comment



Allows you to add headings into your HTML code that aren't displayed on the page.
This can be useful when creating and editing large documents.

Definition

<DFN> text </DFN>

Renders text often in italics depending on browser presets and should be used when defining a term.

Directory List

<DIR> list items </DIR>

Sets out a directory list with content made up of List Item (LI) tags without bullets or numbers before them.
<UL PLAIN WRAP=HORIZ> does exactly the same thing.

<DIR COMPACT> content </DIR> - short items can be displayed on the same line.

Division

<DIV CLASS=NOWRAP>

Used to divide a document up into different sections, such as chapters, sections, abstract, and appendix using the CLASS attribute.
LANG - indicates the ISO standard language using standard abbreviation.
ALIGN attribute (LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTER).
NOWRAP - prevents the browser from wrapping content except where <BR>'s are used.