| Support: |  2.0, 3.0, 3.2 |
 1.1+ |
 1.0+ |
This document describes tags that don't fit our other categories, including the crucial anchor (used in creating hypertext links) and inline image tags.
Click here to skip over the explanatory material at the top of the page and jump straight to the tags.This table:
and these icons:
Support:
alert you to tags and attributes that are not supported by all browsers. The support page explains the table and the icons in detail.
Not all HTML tags are in this single file. The comprehensive list has been split into the following eight categories:
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.
<A NAME="anchor-name">"#anchor-name"
<A HREF=>link-text</A>url"
<A HREF=">link-text</A>url#anchor-name"
<A HREF=">link-text</A>
The anchor tag defines either a link or an anchor in a document. The anchor tag must contain either a NAME attribute or an HREF attribute, or both.
There are three optional attributes that are no longer commonly used with anchor, though they are used with LINK:
REF="relationship"- defines the relationship between this document and the
HREFURL.
REV="relationship"- defines the relationship between the
HREFURL and this document. (REVstands for reverse, because it is the reverse of theREFattribute.)
TITLE="document-name"- No longer commonly used, indicates the
TITLEof the document pointed to by theHREFURL.
Both Netscape and Explorer support the TARGET attribute as an extension. It is often used with frames, but frames are not required to use it.
TARGET="target window name"- Will load the document pointed to by HREF into the window specified by "target window name"
- The following are the predefined target names:
_blank- Will cause the link to be loaded into a new blank window.
_self- Will cause the link to be loaded into the same window the link was in.
_parent- Will cause the link to be loaded into the parent of this document.
_top- Will cause the link to be loaded into the full body of this window.
Anchors with a SHAPE attribute may appear inside FIG tags. These anchors are described with the FIG tag.
An anchor name can also be defined with the ID attribute in many other markup tags. For example, the source:
<P ID=jumppoint>This is a paragraph with a jump point defined in it.
defines an anchor called jumppoint at the start of the paragraph. Almost every element, including lists, list items, images, and headers, can have an ID attribute.
| Support: | 3.2 | 2.0+ | 2.0+ |
<AREA SHAPE="shape"ALT="text"CO-ORDS="co-ords"HREF="URL">
<AREA SHAPE="shape"ALT="text"CO-ORDS="co-ords"HREF="URL"TARGET="target window name>
<AREA SHAPE="shape"ALT="text"CO-ORDS="co-ords"NOHREF>
The area tag, valid only within a MAP, defines areas that act as hotspots within an image. Typically a map will have multiple AREA tags; if the user clicks at a location that is inside two or
more defined areas the one that appears first within the MAP entry is used.
The NOHREF attribute means that clicks here will not cause a link to be followed.
The SHAPE attribute can be one of RECT, CIRCLE, POLY or DEFAULT. CO-ORDS gives the co-ordinates, in pixels, measured from the upper left corner of the image, of the defining
points for the shape. For RECT these are left, top, right, bottom. For CIRCLE they are Xcentre, Ycentre, radius. For POLY they are x1, y1, x2, y2, ... xn, yn. The DEFAULT area, maps
all areas not already specified in another AREA tag and no co-ordinates are required.
If Target is specified then the document pointed to by HREF will be loaded into the window specified by "target window name". The following are the predefined target
names:
_blank- Will cause the link to be loaded into a new blank window.
_self- Will cause the link to be loaded into the same window the link was in.
_parent- Will cause the link to be loaded into the parent of this document.
_top- Will cause the link to be loaded into the full body of this window.
| Support: |  | | 2.0+ |
<BGSOUND SRC="URL">
<BGSOUND SRC="URL"LOOP=n>
The background sound tag identifies a .wav, .au, or.mid resource that will be played when the page is opened. The optional LOOP attribute will cause the resource to be played n
times. LOOP="INFINITE" will cause the resource to be played continuously as long as the page is open.
| Support: | | 1.1+ | 2.0+ |
<BASEFONT SIZE=number>
The base font tag defines the base that relative FONT changes are based on. (Default is 3.)
| Support: | | 1.1+ | |
<BLINK>text</BLINK>
The blink tag highlights the text by having it blink on and off.
<!--comment text-->
The comment tag includes the actual comment text. Any instance of --> ends the comment. Whitespace may be included between the -- and the > but not between the <! and the first --.
| Support: | | 2.0+ | 3.0+ |
<EMBEDattributes>alternate HTML</EMBED>
The embed element is used to embed a plugin into a document. The OBJECT tag can also be used to embed objects. The attributes of EMBED are:
SRC="URL"- "URL" identifies the location of the object to be embedded.
HEIGHT=number- This specifies the height of the object, according to the UNITS attribute.
WIDTH=number- This specifies the width of the object, 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.
NAME=text- This indicates the name used by other objects or elements to refer to this object.
"OPTIONAL PARAMETER"=value- This
specifies any parameters that are specific to the object. Put the name of the parameter in place of"OPTIONAL PARAMETER".
PALETTE=#rgb|#rgb- Sets the foreground or background color. The first colour is the foreground.
<
>
&
"
 
These escape sequences are used to enter characters such as <, >, &, and " into HTML documents. The mnemonics of the original four sequences from HTML 2.0 stand for Less
Than, Greater Than, AMPersand, and double QUOTe. HTML 3.2 adds NonBreaking SPace, REGistered trademark and COPYright. HTML 3.0 adds EN SPace, EM SPace, EN
DASH, and EM DASH. There are a number of escape sequences available for accented characters; a full list is provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C.) Use a space or
semi-colon(;) after the mnemonic to indicate the end of the escape sequence; using a space will insert a space between the special character and the next part of the text, while using a
semi-colon will not.
| Support: | | 2.0+ | 3.0+ |
<FRAMEattributes>
The frame tag appears inside the FRAMESET tag and specifies one frame in the frameset. The attributes are:
SRC="URL"- The URL of the source document to be displayed in this frame. If the frame does not specify a source it will be displayed as blank space.
NAME="window name"- Here "window name" is the name associated with this frame. It can be used by the TARGET attribute in the A, BASE, AREA, and FORM tags to target this frame.
MARGINWIDTH=number- Here number is the left and right margin thickness in pixels.
MARGINHEIGHT=number- Here number is the top and bottom margin thickness in pixels.
SCROLLING=type- Here type is one of yes, no or auto. It specifies if the frame is to have a scroll bar: auto (the default) means the browser will decide.
NORESIZE- Stops the user from resizing the frame..
FRAMEBORDER=yes|no- Specifies if the border should be displayed.
FRAMESPACING=number- Here number is the spacing between frames in pixels.
ALIGN ="alignment" (one of LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, TEXTTOP, MIDDLE, ABSMIDDLE, BASELINE, BOTTOM, or ABSBOTTOM.)
| Support: | | | 3.0+ |
<IFRAME attributes> frame data <IFRAME>
The IFRAME tag defines a floating frame, and the end tag is required. The attributes for IFRAME are as follows:
ALIGN=left|center|top|bottom- This sets the alignment of the frame or of the surrounding text. The default is
LEFT.FRAMEBORDER=1|0Renders a 3-D edge border around the frame. 1 (default) inserts a border. 0 displays no border.
HEIGHT=heightControls the height (in pixels) of the floating frame.
MARGINHEIGHT=heightControls the margin height for the frame, in pixels.
MARGINWIDTH=widthControls the margin width for the frame, in pixels.
NAME=nameProvides a target name for the frame.
SCROLLING=yes|noCreates a scrolling frame.
SRC=address- Displays the source file for the frame.
WIDTH=widthControls the width of the floating frame, in pixels.
| Support: | | 2.0+ | 3.0+ |
<FRAMESETattributes>frame tags</FRAMESET>
The FRAMESET tag replaces the BODY tag in a document and is used to split the documents window into a set of smaller frames. FRAMESET tags can be nested to create more
complicated frame layouts. NOFRAME tags can also be placed in a frameset. The attributes are:
ROWS="row heights"- Here "row heights" specifies a list of values for the rows, each one can be specified as a percentage, a pixel value or as "*". The frameset will be split vertically into frames based on these values. Rows with "*"'s in them will have any remaining space split between them.
COLS="column widths"- Here "column widths" specifies a list of values for the columns. The width of each column can be specified as a percentage, a pixel value or as "*". The frameset will be split into frames based on these values. Columns with a width of "*" will split the space that is not assigned to other columns.
<IMGattributes>
The inline image tag displays an image referred to by a URL. It must contain at least an SRC attribute. The attributes are:
ALIGN="alignment"- Here "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.
ALT="text"- Here "text" is the text to be displayed by a browser that does not display images, such as Lynx, or to be used when image display is suppressed.
BORDER=number- Here number is the border thickness in pixels. (Do not use BORDER=0 for images that are links.)
CONTROLS- If present, and an AVI resource is being played, displays controls under the resource.
DYNSRC="url"- Specifies an AVI resource to be played, or a VRML world. Always include a still image as well with the
SRCattribute, for use by browsers that do not display inline video or VRML.
HEIGHT=number- This specifies the height of the image, according to the UNITS attribute.
HSPACE=number- Here number is the space, in pixels, to leave to the left and right of the image.
ISMAP="url"- This attribute indicates that this image is a server side image map.
LOOP=number- The optional
LOOPattribute will cause the resource to be played number times.LOOP="INFINITE"will cause the resource to be played continuously as long as the page is open.
LOWSRC="url"- Specifies an image to be displayed while the SRC image is being loaded. This alternate image should take much less time to download then the SRC image: it should be lower resolution, black and white, etc.
START="start option"- The
STARTattribute specifies when the browser should start to play the resource specified with theDYNSRCattribute.START=FILEOPENinstructs the browser to play the resource only when the file is opened.START=MOUSEOVERinstructs the browser to play the resource each time the user moves the mouse cursor over it.START=FILEOPEN,MOUSEOVERdoes both.
SRC="URL"- Here "URL" identifies the image source, typically a GIF or JPEG file.
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.
USEMAP="url"- This attribute overrides the
ISMAPattribute, if present, and if the browser supports client-side image maps. It uses theMAPelement found at url to translate clicks.
WIDTH=number- This specifies the width of the image, according to the UNITS attribute.
VSPACE=number- Here number is the space, in pixels, to leave above and below the image.
| Support: | 3.2 | 2.0+ | |
<APPLETattributes>applet-content</APPLET>
The Java applet tag runs a Java applet referred to by a URL. applet-content consists of optional PARAM tags, ordinary text and markup to be displayed by browsers that cannot run Java applets, and a TEXTFLOW tag if no ordinary text and markup is included. The attributes of the APPLET tag are:
CODEBASE="base"- What "base" should be used when resolving source relative URLs.
CODE="code"- The URL of the applet to be run.
NAME="applet name"- The name of the applet.
ALIGN="alignment"- Here "alignment" should be one of LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, MIDDLE, or BOTTOM.
ALT="text"- Here "text" is the text to be displayed by a browser that does not support applets.
HEIGHT=number- The height of the applet display area in pixels.
WIDTH=number- The width of the applet display area in pixels.
HSPACE=number- The space, in pixels, to leave to the left and right of the applet display area.
VSPACE=number- The space, in pixels, to leave above and below the applet display area.
DOWNLOAD=number- This specifies the order in which they are downloaded.
HEIGHT=pixels- Specifies the height of the applet display area.
HSPACE=pixels- Specifies the horizontal space in which the applet displays.
NAME=name- Identifies an applet to other applets within the HTML page.
TITLE=text- Specifies an advisory title string.
| Support: | 3.2 | 2.0+ | |
<TEXTFLOW>
If an APPLET element has no ordinary text and markup in its applet-content, and contains only PARAM tags, comments, and whitespace, you should add a TEXTFLOW tag. This tag will be ignored by Web browsers but will keep SGML parsers happy.
| Support: | 3.2 | 2.0+ | 2.0+ |
<MAP NAME="name">area tags</MAP>
The map tag defines a client side image map It gives a name to a collection of AREA tags that are superimposed over an inline image to connect user clicks with URLs.
| Support: | | | 2.0+ |
<MARQUEE>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE ALIGN="align">text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE BEHAVIOR="behavior">text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE BGCOLOR="#rrggbb">text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE BGCOLOR="colorname">text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE DIRECTION="direction">text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE HEIGHT=n>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE HEIGHT=n%>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE HSPACE=n>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE LOOP=n>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE SCROLLAMOUNT=n>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE SCROLLDELAY=n>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE WIDTH=n>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE VSPACE=n>text</MARQUEE>
<MARQUEE WIDTH=n%>text</MARQUEE>
The marquee tag defines a moving piece of text, like a movie marquee.
The ALIGN attribute works like the ALIGN attribute in the IMG tag, setting the location of the surrounding text. "align" can be TOP, BOTTOM, or MIDDLE.
The BEHAVIOR attribute defines the way the text moves. SCROLL means that the text slides into the marquee box and out again, then repeats. SLIDE means that the text slides into the
marquee box, stops when it is all in, then repeats. ALTERNATE means that the text bounces back and forth within the marquee box.
The BGCOLOR attribute specifies the colour to be used for the background. rrggbb is a six digit hexadecimal number with the first two digits specifying the red value, the middle two the green value, and the last two the blue value. Some sample colour values:
Colour names can be used for the BGCOLOR attribute. Valid colours are: Aqua, Black, Blue, Fuchsia, Gray, Green, Lime, Maroon, Navy, Olive, Purple, Red, Silver, Teal,Yellow, and
White.
The DIRECTION attribute is LEFT or RIGHT and specifies the direction in which the text should move.
The HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes size the marquee box. If n is an absolute number, it is taken to mean pixels; if n is followed by a % sign it is taken to mean a percentage of the width
or height (as appropriate) of the screen.
The HSPACE and VSPACE attributes specify a margin to the left and right, or above and below, the marquee box, in pixels.
The LOOP attribute will cause the marquee to scroll n times. LOOP="INFINITE" will cause the marquee to scroll as long as the page is open.
The SCROLLAMOUNT attribute specifies, the amount, in pixels, to move the scrolling text by each time it is drawn. The SCROLLDELAY attribute specifies the delay, in milliseconds, between
drawings.
| Support: | | 1.1+ | 2.0+ |
<NOBR>text</NOBR>
The no break tag defines a block of text which will have no line breaks except those explicitly requested with BR or suggested with WOBR.
| Support: | | 2.0+ | 3.0+ |
<NOFRAMES>alternate HTML</NOFRAMES>
The NOFRAMES tag specifies HTML that can be used by browsers that do not support frames. Everything between the start and end tag is ignored by browsers that understand frames.
<OBJECT>object-content</OBJECT>
The object tag will be included in a future HTML standard, code-named Cougar.
| Support: | 3.2 | 2.0+ | 3.0+ |
<PARAM NAME="name"VALUE="value">
This tag, valid only within an APPLET element, passes parameters to the applet, which gets them with the getParameter() method.
| Support: | | 2.0+ | 3.0+ |
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="language"><!--script statements--></SCRIPT>
The script tag identifies script code. This can be code to be executed at this point of the document or may contain functions for use later in the document. Netscape Navigator supports JavaScript, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 supports both JavaScript and VBScript. The statements are usually but not required to be enclosed in the comment tag, so that browsers that do not support scripting do not render the code as text. Functions used by the document are usually defined in the HEAD tag so that they are loaded and available before the user could do anything that might call them.
| Support: | | 3.0+ | |
<SPACERattributes>
The SPACER tag creates an area of white space within the document. The attributes for this tag are:
TYPE=type- The
TYPEattribute has three possible values: horizontal (the default,) vertical, and block.SIZE=pixels- The
SIZEattribute only applies when the spacer has a type ofhorizontalorvertical. Then this attribute controls the absolute width or height in pixels of the spacing addedWIDTH=pixels- The
WIDTHattribute only applies when the spacer is of typeblock. Then this attribute controls the absolute width in pixels of the spacing rectangle addedHEIGHT=pixels- The
HEIGHTattribute only applies when the spacer is of typeblock. Then this attribute controls the absolute height in pixels of the spacing rectangle addedALIGN=alignment- The
ALIGNattribute only applies when the spacer is of typeblock. Then this attribute controls the alignment of the spacing rectangle in exactly the same way it would control the alignment of anIMGtag. "alignment" should be one of LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, TEXTTOP, MIDDLE, ABSMIDDLE, BASELINE, BOTTOM, or ABSBOTTOM.
| Support: | | 1.1+ | 2.0+ |
<WBR>
The word break tag identifies a place where a word can be broken, or where a line can be broken within a NOBR block.