WWW: Beyond the Basics

Chapter 13 - HTML

13.4.3 HTML tags that are in a finalized spec and globally supported

The following list of tags are those from HTML 1.0 and 2.0 They considered safe, that is, usable by any browser. (Connolly, DTD Reference)


Required Tags:

<HTML></HTML>  encloses the entire document and defines it as HTML
<HEAD></HEAD>  comes after the opening <HTML> tag and contains the <TITLE>
<TITLE></TITLE> contains the name of the document and must be enclosed by <HEAD> tags
<BODY></BODY> contains all of the rest of the document - it is opened after the 
closing </HEAD> tag and is closed at the end of the document. The only tag to go after
the closing </BODY> tag is the closing </HTML> tag.

These are the original tags created in HTML 1.0 (HTML 1.0 DTD March 1993)

A - anchor
ADDRESS - formatting tag, often shown in italics
B - formatting tag, bold
BASE - optional head element, sets base URL for related documents
BLOCKQUOTE - formatting tag, to indicate portions of text included from other documents
BODY - required, see above
BR - line break
CITE - formatting tag, to indicate text is a citation from another source
CODE - formatting tag, to indicate text is program source code
DD - list tag, definition
DIR - list tag, directory
DL - list tag, definition list
DT - list tag, definition term
EM - formatting tag, to indicate text is to be emphasized
H1 - structural heading, top (largest) level
H2 - structural heading
H3 - structural heading
H4 - structural heading
H5 - structural heading
H6 - structural heading, bottom (smallest) level
HEAD - required, see above
HR - horizontal rule
HTML - required, see above
I - formatting tag, italics
IMG - image anchor
ISINDEX - optional head element, indicates document is a searchable index
KBD - formatting tag, indicates expected user in source code
LI - list tag, list item
LINK - indicates relationship between documents, varies from browser to browser
MENU - list tag, compacted
META - optional head element, information for client software such as last revision date
NEXTID - optional head element used by automated markup systems to keep track of anchors
OL - list tag, ordered list
P - paragraph break
PRE - formatting tag, indicates text should be preformatted (monospaced, preserve whitespace)
SAMP - formatting tag, used to mark text output from a computer program
STRONG - formatting tag, strongly emphasize text
TITLE - required, see above
TT - formatting tag, typewriter text, show text in fixed font
UL - list tag, unnumbered list
VAR - formatting tag, indicated a variable in program source code


HTML 2.0 introduced forms support, which added the following tags: (Connolly, HTML 2.0)

FORM - encloses a form block
INPUT - a form input field (text entry field, radio button, check box, etc.)
OPTION - the list items in a SELECT element
SELECT - for pull-down lists in forms
TEXTAREA - for large text input fields in forms


Next, we'll look at some Netscape additions to HTML 2.0.
[PREVIOUS] [NEXT] [Ch 13 Toc] [Book ToC] [VaTech CompSci Dept]

Copyright © 1996 Pris Sears, All Rights Reserved

Pris Sears <sears@vt.edu>