HTML Tags Adam's HTML Planet - Home Page  


This is by no means an exhaustive list of HTML tags. It just has some of the most common ones. This list is best used as a 'look-up' page to remind yourself of a tag you perhaps don't use much or to see how you might go about trying something new

Essential  *  Background & Colour  *  Text & Font  *  Section  *  Graphics  *  Linking
Lists  *  Tables  *  Frames  *  Forms * Special  *  Misc

Essential Tags

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
Web Site Title</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Contents of Web Site
</BODY>
</HTML>


Background and Colour Tags

<BODY> Tag Attributes
BACKGROUND="url "Background Image
BGCOLOR="#??????"Background Colour
TEXT="#??????"Document Text Colour
LINK="#??????"Link Colour
VLINK="#??????"Visited Link Colour
ALINK="#??????"Active Link Colour
BGPROPERTIES="FIXED"Background Properties - "Fixed" to obtain a watermark type background
LEFTMARGIN="?"Side Margin Size in Pixels (Internet Explorer)
TOPMARGIN="?"Top Margin Size in Pixels (Internet Explorer)
MARGINWIDTH="?"Side Margin Size in Pixels (Netscape Navigator)
MARGINHEIGHT="?"Top and Bottom Margin Size in Pixels (Netscape Navigator)


Text Formatting Tags
<H?></H?>Header - Sizes 1 (largest) to 6 (smallest)
<B> </B>Bold Text
<I> </I> Italic Text
<U> </U>Underline Text
<CENTER> </CENTER>Centre
<SUB> </SUB>Subscript - Smaller text placed below normal text
<SUP> </SUP> Superscript - Smaller text placed above normal text


<FONT> Tag Attributes
COLOR="#??????"Font Colour - Use Hex colour codes to replace question marks
SIZE="?"Font Size: 1 (smallest) to 7 (largest)
SIZE="+/-?"Font Size change - with respect to the text preceding it
POINT-SIZE="?"Font Point Size (Netscape Navigator)
FACE="***"Font Face (or just font) eg. Arial etc.
<TT> </TT>Typewriter Text
<PRE> </PRE>Preformatted Text
<BLOCKQUOTE> </BLOCKQUOTE>Block Quote
<EM> </EM>Emphasis - Shown in italics on most browsers
<STRONG> </STRONG>Strong - Shown in bold on most browsers


Section Division Tags
<P> </P>Paragraph - Closing tag not usually required
<BR>Line Break - (Carriage Return)
<DIV> </DIV>Division/Section - Also Alignment: ALIGN="LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT,JUSTIFY"


Graphics Tags
<IMG> Tag Attributes

SRC="url."Name and url of image
ALIGN="***"Image Alignment
WIDTH="??"Image Width (in pixels or %)
HEIGHT="??"Image Height (in pixels or %)
ALT="***"Alternate Text
LOWSRC="url "Low Resolution Image name and url
BORDER="?"Border Thickness in pixels
VSPACE="?"Space above and below Image (in pixels)
HSPACE="?"Space on sides of Image (in pixels)
<HR>Horizontal Line


<HR> Tag Attributes
SIZE="?"Line Thickness in pixels
WIDTH="?"Line Width in pixels
WIDTH="??%"Line Width as a percentage
COLOR="#??????"Line Colour
NOSHADENo 3D Cut-out
ALIGN="***"Alignment: LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT
<NOBR> </NOBR>No Line breaks


Linking Tags
<A> Tag Attributes

HREF="url "Location of page to link to
TARGET="***"Target for Links in frames _SELF, _PARENT, _BLANK, _TOP. Note: the _ (underscore) is needed
NAME="*** "Name of a specific section on the page
HREF="url#***"Link to a specific part in another Page


List Tags
<OL> </OL>Ordered List - i.e. numbered or lettered
<LI>Ordered List Item

< <OL> and <LI> Tag Attributes
TYPE="?"List Type: A, a, I, i, 1, 2,
OL - START="?"List Starting Value
LI - VALUE="?"List Item Value


<UL> </UL>Un-Ordered List - i.e. bulleted
<LI>Un-Ordered List Item

<UL> and <LI> Tag Attributes
TYPE="?"List Type: DISC, CIRCLE, SQUARE


Table Tags

<TABLE> Tag Attributes
Horizontal Alignment: LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT
BORDER="?"Border Thickness in pixels
BORDERCOLOR="#??????"Border Colour
CELLPADDING="?"Space between inside line of cell and text
CELLSPACING="?"Space between inside and outside line of 2 adjacent cell borders
WIDTH="?"Table width (pixels or %)
HEIGHT="?"Table Height (pixels or %)
BACKGROUND="url "Background Image
BGCOLOR="#??????"Background Colour
TEXT="#??????"Document Text Colour
LINK="#??????"Link Colour
VLINK="#??????"Visited Link Colour
ALINK="#??????"Active Link Colour
ALIGN="?"

<TR> - Table Row - Tag Attributes
ALIGN="?"Horizontal Alignment: LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT
VALIGN="?"Vertical Alignment: TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM

<TD> - Table Cell - Tag Attributes
WIDTH="?"Cell width (pixels or %)
HEIGHT="?"Cell height (pixels or %)
BACKGROUND="url "Background Image
BGCOLOR="#??????"Background Colour
TEXT="#??????"Document Text Colour
LINK="#??????"Link Colour
VLINK="#??????"Visited Link Colour
ALINK="#??????"Active Link Colour
ALIGN="?"Horizontal Alignment: LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT
VALIGN="?"Vertical Alignment: TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM
COLSPAN="?"Number of columns the cell spans across
ROWSPAN="?"Number of rows a particular cell spans
NOWRAPNo line breaks in that particular cell


Frame Tags

<FRAMESET> Tag Attributes
ROWS="??,??,??..." Row Sizes (Number of Rows)
COLS="??,??,??..."Column Thicknesses
BORDER="?"Border Thickness (In Pixels)
FRAMEBORDER="?"Frame Border: 1, 0 (Yes or No)
FRAMESPACING="?"Spacing Between Frames
BORDERCOLOR="#??????"Colour Of Border

<FRAME> Tag Attributes
SRC="url "Location of HTML File for a frame
NAME="***" Name of frame window
MARGINWIDTH="?"Horizontal Margin Spacing of Frame (In Pixels)
MARGINHEIGHT="?"Vertical Margin Thickness of Frame (In Pixels)
SCROLLING="?"Frame Scrolling: YES, NO, AUTO
NORESIZEDeclare Frame to Be a Fixed Size
FRAMEBORDER="?"Frame Border: 1, 0 (Yes or No)
BORDERCOLOR="?"Border Colour
<NOFRAMES> </NOFRAMES> Unframed Content


Form Tags

<FORM> Tag Attributes
ACTION="url "URL of Form Script
METHOD="***"Method of Form: GET, POST
ENCTYPE="***"For File Upload: ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data"

<INPUT> Tag Attributes
TYPE="***"Input Field Type: TEXT, PASSWORD, CHECKBOX, RADIO, FILE, BUTTON, IMAGE, HIDDEN, SUBMIT, RESET
NAME="***"Form Field Name
VALUE="***"Value of Field
SIZE="?"Field Size
MAXLENGTH="?"Maximum Input Length of Field
CHECKED Check Checkbox or Radio Button

<BUTTON> Tag Attributes
TYPE="***" Button Type: SUBMIT, RESET, BUTTON
NAME="***" Button Name
VALUE="***"Label on Button
SIZE="?"Button Size

<SELECT> Tag Attributes
NAME="***"Drop Down Combo-Box Name
SIZE="?"No Of Selectable Options
MULTIPLEAllow Multiple Choice

<OPTION> Tag Attributes
SELECTEDDefault Selected Option
VALUE="***" Option Value

<TEXTAREA> Tag Attributes
ROWS="?"Number of Rows
COLS="?"Number of Columns (Characters per Row)
NAME="***" Text Area Name
WRAP="***"Word Wrapping: OFF, HARD, SOFT


Special Character Tags
&#?; Special Character - Replace ? with ISO CODE
&LT;<
&GT; >
&AMP;&
&QUOT;"
&nbsp; A Space (non-breaking space)
&COPY;Copyright Symbol
&REG;Registered TM


Miscellaneous Tags
<!-- *** -->Comment - Does not display in the browser
<A HREF="mailto:name@server.com?SUBJECT=subject of email">Opens mail client with subject line specified

<META> Tag Attributes
NAME="***"META Name: description, keywords, author
HTTP-EQUIV="***" HTTP Equivalent Information: title, etc.
CONTENT="***"Contents of Meta Tag

<LINK> Tag Attributes
REL="***"Defines Forward Relationship
REV="***"Defines Reverse Relationship
HREF="url"Location of object or file being linked
TYPE="***" Type of Relationship object or file
TITLE="***" Name of Relationship (Not Neccessary)
<BLINK> </BLINK> Blinking text
DIR="?" Text Direction Attribute for most tags (LTR, RTL)
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC> Prologue (Description of File)


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