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HTML Tag Quick Reference Guide

These tables summarize basic HTML tags.

by DEVX Staff

Jan 1, 2000

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Click on a particular category of tags to jump directly to it, or browse the full reference list.

Note: In older versions of HTML, some tags did not require ending tags. With the emergence of XML and XHTML, you should be sure to include both beginning and ending tags.

Structure Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
HTML File	<html>	none	</html>
File Header	<head>	none	</head>
File Title	<title>	none	</title>
Comments	<!--	Your comments go between the start and end tags. Put a space between the -- and your comments.	-->
Body	<body>	background="filename" bgcolor="color value" text="color value" link="color value" vlink="color value"	</body>
Division	<div>	align="right/left/center" style="property:value;" class="classname"	</div>
Span (inline)	<span>	style="property:value;" class="classname"	</span>

Basic Text Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Line Break	<br>	clear="left/right/all"	</br> or <br />
Paragraph	<p>	align="center/right"	</p>
Bold	<b>	none	</b>
Italic	<i>	none	</i>
Typewriter Text	<tt>	none	</tt>
Headline	<h1-6>	align="center/right"	</h1-6>
Font	<font>	face="name, name" size="+/-value/fixed size" color="color value" Note: the font tag is being phased out in favor of CSS styles.	</font>
Horizontal Rule	<hr>	size="XX" width="XX/XX%" noshade	</hr> or <hr />
Block Quote	<blockquote>	none	</blockquote>
Division	<div>	align="left/center/right"	</div>

List Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Unordered List	<ul>	type="disc/circle/square"	</ul>
Ordered List	<ol>	type="I/A/1/a/i" start="value to start counting at"	</ol>
List Item	<li>	type=all ul and ol options	</li>
Definiton List	<dl>	none	</dl>
Definition List Item	<dt>	none	</dt>
Definition List Definition	<dd>	none	</dd>

Link Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Anchor Link	<a>	href="filename" target="windowname"	</a>
Anchor Mark	<a>	name="markname"	</a>

Image Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Insert Image	<img>	src="filename" align="left/right" width="XXX" height="XXX" alt="text that desribes image" ISMAP USEMAP="#mapname"	</img>

Client-side Imagemap Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Define Map	<map>	name="mapname"	</map>
Area Definition	<area>	shape="rect/circle/poly/point" coords="X,Y,X,Y" href="imagename"	</area>

Table Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Table	<table>	border="X" width="XX/X%" cellspacing="XX" cellpadding="XX" bgcolor="color value" background="filename"	</table>
Table Row	<tr>	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom" bgcolor="color value"	</tr>
Table Data	<td>	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom" width=X nowrap colspan="X" rowspan="X" bgcolor="color value"	</td>
Table Header	<th>	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom" width=X nowrap colspan="X" rowspan="X" bgcolor="color value"	</th>
Caption	<caption>	align="left/center/right" valign="top/middle/bottom"	</caption>

Frame Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Set Frames	<frameset>	cols="XX/XX%/" rows="XX/XX%/"	</frameset>
Frame Definition	<frame>	src="filename" name="framename" noresize scroll=auto/yes/no marginwidth="XX" marginheight="XX"	</frame>
Base	<base>	target="framename"/ "_self"/ "_top"/ "_parent" (Note the underscores)	</base>
No Frames	<noframes>	Between start and end tags, place the content that appears when a non-frames browser loads this page.	</noframes>

Form Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Form	<form>	method=get/put action="programname"	</form>
Input Field	<input>	name="variablename" type=text/password/ checkbox/radio/submit/ reset/image	</input>
Selection List	<select>	name="variablename" size=XX multiple	</select>
Selection Option	<option>	none	</option>
Scrolling Text Field	<textarea>	name="variablename" `rows=XX cols=XX`	</textarea>

Meta Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
<meta> (Server metatags)	http-equiv="refresh" content="seconds, filename"	none	</meta>
<meta> (Content metatags)	name="keywords/description/author/ generator/abstract/expiration" content="your information"	none	</meta>

Style Sheet Tags
Function	Start Tag	Attributes	End Tag
Style Definition Area	<style>	type="text/css"> Style declarations go between begin and end style tags	</style>
Link to external CSS File	<link>	rel=stylesheet type="text/css" href="URL"	none