Willcam's Comprehensive HTML Cross Reference

Old HTML 3.0 Tags

This document describes tags included in the abandoned HTML 3.0 draft and not incorporated into later darfts of HTML. They may have been implemented by some browsers, but should be considered obsolete.

This table:

Support:

2.0, 3.0, 3.2

1.1+

1.0+

alert you to tags and attributes that are not supported by all browsers. The support page explains the table and the icons in detail.

Finding your way around...

Not all HTML tags are in this single file. The comprehensive list has been split into the following eight categories:

• Forms Tags: tags used to design and implement interactive forms
• Tables Tags: tags used in tables
• List Tags: tags associated with lists
• Old HTML 3.0 Tags: tags included in the abandoned HTML 3.0 draft and not incorporated into later drafts of HTML
• Toplevel Tags: tags that affect an entire web page or, like the division tag, a large part of one
• Character Formatting Tags: tags that change the formatting of a set of characters and do not cause a line break
• Block Formatting Tags: tags that change the formatting of a block of characters and cause a line break before and after the tag
• Miscellaneous Tags: tags that don't fit our other categories, including the crucial anchor tag (used for creating hypertext links) and inline image tags

We have also provided several indexes to help you navigate through this reference. In addition to our main indexes (the compact index and the complete index), there are four other indexes that list the tags according to the standards and browsers that support them.

Willcam's Comprehensive HTML Cross Reference was created as a service to the Internet community, and forms part of Willcam's Internet and HTML curriculum. It represents a joint effort of The Willcam Group and Gregory Consulting and is Copyright 1995 and 1996, The Willcam Group Limited. Please report any errors or omissions to Kate Gregory.

Abbreviation

Support:

3.0

<ABBREV> text </ABBREV>

The abbreviation tag defines an abbreviation. It is typically displayed just like normal text, but is used by automatic indexers.

Acronym

Support:

3.0

<ACRONYM> text </ACRONYM>

The acronym tag defines an acronym. It is typically displayed just like normal text, but is used by automatic indexers.

Author

Support:

3.0

<AUTHOR> text </AUTHOR>
<AU> text </AU>

The author tag defines text that names the author of a document. It is typically displayed just like normal text, but is used by automatic indexers.

Banner

Support:

3.0

<BANNER attributes </BANNER>

The banner element defines an image or block of text that does not scroll with the document and is displayed at the top of the screen as the user scrolls through the document. Details of the attributes are not yet available -- use a BANNER attribute in the LINK section of the HEAD.

Credit

Support:

3.0

<CREDIT> text </CREDIT>

The credit tag defines text that credits a figure or quote. It is valid only within FIG or BQ tags.

Deleted Text

Support:

3.0

<DEL> list entries </DEL>

The deleted text tag marks text that has been deleted, for example in a group authoring situation or a legal document.

Figure

Support:

3.0

<FIG attributes> figure-content </FIG>

See the OBJECT and MAP tags for an alternate to this tag.

The figure element is an improvement over the inline image used in HTML 2.0 for a variety of reasons. The text used to describe the figure for non-graphical browsers can contain markup tags, and a separate credit and caption will be displayed by both graphical and non-graphical browsers. It also makes imagemaps much easier to code and independent of the server. At the moment it isn't clear whether the built-in image maps of FIG or the client-side image maps of IMG with a USEMAP attribute will emerge as the long term alternative to server side image maps. The attributes of FIG are:

SRC="URL"

"URL" identifies the image source, typically a GIF or JPEG file.

ALIGN="alignment"

"alignment" should be one of TOP, MIDDLE, or BOTTOM. This causes the top, middle, or bottom of the image to be aligned with the text on the line containing the IMG tag.
"alignment" should be one of LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, TEXTTOP, MIDDLE, ABSMIDDLE, BASELINE, BOTTOM, or ABSBOTTOM.

HEIGHT=number

This specifies the height of the image, according to the UNITS attribute.

WIDTH=number

This specifies the width of the image, according to the UNITS attribute.

UNITS=units

Here units is one of pixels, meaning the width and height are measured in pixels, or en, meaning the width and height are measured in en spaces. These units are not used for the shape co-ordinates of any anchor tags in the figure.

NOFLOW

Stops text from flowing around the figure.

IMAGEMAP="URL"

Points to a script that handles clicks and drags.

The figure-content contains the following optional elements, in this order:

<OVERLAY SRC="url">
<CAPTION>caption-text</CAPTION>
Figure description text, including markup (headers, lists, etc.) to substitute for the image.
<A SHAPE="shape">link-text</A>
<CREDIT>credit-text</CREDIT>

The SHAPE attribute is one of:

• default
• circle x, y, r
• rect x, y, w, h
• circle x, y, r
• polygon x1, y1, x2, y2, ...

This implements a figure with a built-in imagemap, freeing the browser from asking the server how to respond to a click. If the user clicks within the area defined by the anchor's SHAPE attribute, the link is followed. (If the click is outside all the defined shapes, the link identified as default is followed.) The numerical values provided are interpreted as pixels if they are integers, or as fractions of the screen width if they are not integers, with the origin at the top left corner of the figure. There is an intelligent mechanism for dealing with a click in an area that is in more than one shape anchor. If the browser does not display graphics, the figure description text is displayed, and some of it is highlighted as link text.

Footnote

Support:

3.0

<FN ID=anchor-name> text </FN>

The footnote tag defines a footnote, ideally displayed in a pop-up window. The text that refers to this footnote does so with a standard anchor tag using anchor-name.

Horizontal Tab

Support:

3.0

<TAB INDENT=number>
<TAB TO=tab id ALIGN=align>
<TAB DP=character>

The horizontal tab tag is used to set or jump to a horizontal tab. The INDENT attribute specifies the amount in en spaces to set this indent to. The align attribute can be one of LEFT, RIGHT, CENTER, or DECIMAL and will position the following text to the tab accordingly. The dp sets the tab to the position that the next character is found The default character is ".".

Inserted Text

Support:

3.0

<INS> text </INS>

The inserted text tag marks text that has been inserted, for example in a group authoring situation or a legal document.

Language

Support:

3.0

<LANG> text </LANG>

The language tag is used to alter the language used for a block of text.

List Heading

Support:

3.0

<LH> text </LH>

The list heading tag defines the heading for an ordered, unordered, or definition list. Other tags may be embedded in a list heading. It must come before any List Item (LI) or Definition Term (DT) tags in the list.

Math

Support:

3.0

<MATH> math-content </MATH>

The math tag introduces a description of an equation or formula. math-content is not yet fully defined.

Note

Support:

3.0

<NOTE> text </NOTE>
<NOTE CLASS=class> text </NOTE>
<NOTE SRC=URL> text </NOTE>

The note tag defines text that forms a note. Many browsers display it in an indented block surrounded by blank lines with a graphic. The CLASS attribute specifies the type of note, such as a warning, caution, or note. The graphic used will be based on the CLASS. The SRC attribute can be used to override the graphic that would be used by default.

Overlay

Support:

3.0

<OVERLAY attributes>

Valid only within a figure (FIG), the overlay element speeds up image rendering by drawing small changes over a base figure. The attributes are:

SRC="URL"

Here "URL" identifies the image source, typically a GIF or JPEG file.

X=number

This specifies the offset to the right within the base image from the top left corner, according to the UNITS attribute.

Y=number

This specifies the offset to the bottom within the base image from the top left corner, according to the UNITS attribute.

HEIGHT=number

This specifies the height of the image, according to the UNITS attribute.

WIDTH=number

This specifies the width of the image, according to the UNITS attribute.

UNITS=units

Here units is one of pixels, meaning the width and height are measured in pixels, or en, meaning the width and height are measured in en spaces.

IMAGEMAP="URL"

Points to a script that handles clicks and drags.

Person

Support:

3.0

<PERSON> text </PERSON>

The person tag is used around names of people mentioned in a document. It is typically displayed just like normal text, but is used by automatic indexers

Quote

Support:

3.0

<Q> text </Q>

The quote tag defines text that should be displayed as a short quote. For English language documents this means the text will be surrounded with double quote (") symbols. Quotes nested within quotes will typically be displayed surround by single quote (') symbols.

Range

Support:

3.0

<RANGE FROM="from id" UNTIL="until id">

The range tag, which is valid only in the HEAD section, defines a range within the document. The FROM and UNTIL attributes refer to ID's of tags within the document. The SPOT tag can be used to specify a location in the document where there is no other tag.

Spot

Support:

3.0

<SPOT ID="id">

The spot tag can be used to specify a location in the document where there is no tag.