After seeing several pleas in the comp.infosystems.www.providers newsgroup
for a quick-and-dirty description of all the HTML tags, I decided to
update the cheat sheet I had created for my own use to serve this purpose.
A text version is also available if you prefer.
This document is designed to be as concise as possible, and therefore it doesn't go into any detail about how to use the various tags. There are numerous step-by-step HTML guides on the Web; NCSA mains a good list of them.
Comments and suggestions are welcome; I hope to make this list as accurate and comprehensive as possible. You can Email me at werbach@access.digex.net. Thanks to the following for sending suggestions and assistance on earlier versions:
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GENERAL (all HTML documents should have these)
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Document type <HTML></HTML> (beginning and end of file)
Title <TITLE></TITLE> (document name; must be in header)
Header <HEAD></HEAD> (descriptive info, such as title)
Body <BODY></BODY> (bulk of the page)
HARD FORMATTING (author specifies text appearance)
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Bold <B></B>
Italic <I></I>
3.0 Underline <U></U> (not widely implemented yet)
3.0 Strikeout <S></S> (not widely implemented yet)
Typewriter <TT></TT> (display in a monospaced font)
N1.0 Blinking <BLINK></BLINK> (the most derided tag ever)
SOFT FORMATTING (controlled by the browser's style definitions)
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Headings <H?></H?> (the spec. defines 6 levels)
Emphasis <EM></EM> (usually displayed as italic)
Strong Emphasis <STRONG></STRONG> (usually displayed as bold)
Preformatted <PRE></PRE> (display text as-is)
Width <PRE WIDTH=?></PRE> (in characters)
Pre/No Tags <XMP></XMP> (like PRE but no embedded tags)
Citation <CITE></CITE> (usually italics)
Code <CODE></CODE> (for source code listings)
Sample Output <SAMP></SAMP>
Keyboard Input <KBD></KBD>
Variable <VAR></VAR>
Definition <DFN></DFN> (not widely implemented)
N1.0 Font Size <FONT SIZE=?></FONT> (ranges from 1-7)
N1.0 Base Font Size <BASEFONT SIZE=?> (from 1-7; default is 3)
ALIGNMENT
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Block indent <BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
N1.0 Center <CENTER></CENTER> (for both text and images)
3.0 Align text <P ALIGN=LEFT|CENTER|RIGHT></P>
3.0 Align heading <H? ALIGN=LEFT|CENTER|RIGHT></H?>
LINKS AND GRAPHICS
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Link something <A HREF="URL"></A>
Link to target <A HREF="URL#***"></A> (If in another document)
<A HREF="#***"></A> (If in current document)
Define target <A NAME="***"></A>
Display Image <IMG SRC="URL">
Alignment <IMG SRC="URL" ALIGN=TOP|BOTTOM|MIDDLE>
N1.0 Alignment <IMG SRC="URL" ALIGN=LEFT|RIGHT|TEXTTOP|ABSMIDDLE|
BASELINE|ABSBOTTOM>
Alternate <IMG SRC="URL" ALT="***"> (if image not displayed)
Imagemap <IMG SRC="URL" ISMAP> (requires a script)
N1.0 Dimensions <IMG SRC="URL" WIDTH="?" HEIGHT="?"> (in pixels)
N1.0 Border <IMG SRC="URL" BORDER=?> (in pixels)
N1.0 Runaround Space <IMG SRC="URL" HSPACE=? VSPACE=?> (in pixels)
N1.0 Low-Res Proxy <IMG SRC="URL" LOWSRC="URL">
DIVIDERS
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Paragraph <P> (a double return)
Line Break <BR> (a single carriage return)
N1.0 Clear textwrap <BR CLEAR=LEFT|RIGHT|ALL
Horizontal Rule <HR>
N1.0 Alignment <HR ALIGN=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER>
N1.0 Thickness <HR SIZE=?> (in pixels)
N1.0 Width <HR WIDTH=?> (in pixels)
N1.0 Width Percent <HR WIDTH=%> (as a percentage of page width)
N1.0 Solid Line <HR NOSHADE> (without the 3D cutout look)
N1.0 No Break <NOBR> (prevents line breaks)
N1.0 Word Break <WBR> (where to break a line if needed)
LISTS (lists can be nested)
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Unordered List <UL><LI></UL> (<LI> before each list item)
N1.0 Bullet Type <UL TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> (for the whole list)
<LI TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> (this & subsequent)
Ordered List <OL><LI></OL> (<LI> before each list item)
N1.0 Outline Type <OL TYPE=A|a|I|i|1> (for the whole list)
<LI TYPE=A|a|I|i|1> (this & subsequent)
N1.0 Starting number <OL VALUE=?> (for the whole list)
<LI VALUE=?> (this & subsequent)
Definition List <DL><DT><DD></DL> (<DT>=term, <DD>=definition)
Menu List <MENU><LI></MENU> (<LI> before each list item)
Directory List <DIR><LI></DIR> (<LI> before each list item)
BACKGROUNDS AND COLORS
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N1.1 Bkground Color <BODY BGCOLOR="#$$$"> (order is red/green/blue)
N1.1 Texture <BODY BACKGROUND="URL">
N1.1 Text Color <BODY TEXT="#$$$">
N1.1 Link Color <BODY LINK="#$$$">
N1.1 Visited Link <BODY VLINK="#$$$">
N1.1 Active Link <BODY ALINK="#$$$">
SPECIAL CHARACTERS (these must all be in lower case)
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ASCII code &#?; (where ? is the ASCII code)
< <
> >
& &
" "
N1.0 Registered TM ®
N1.0 Copyright ©
(Complete list at http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/Entities.html)
FORMS (generally require a script on your server)
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Define Form <FORM ACTION="URL" METHOD=GET|POST></FORM>
Input field <INPUT TYPE="TEXT|PASSWORD|CHECKBOX|RADIO|
SUBMIT|RESET">
Field name <INPUT NAME="***">
Checked? <INPUT CHECKED> (checkboxes and radio boxes)
Field size <INPUT SIZE=?> (in characters)
Max Length <INPUT MAXLENGTH=?> (in characters)
Selection List <SELECT></SELECT>
Name of List <SELECT NAME="***"></SELECT>
# of Options <SELECT SIZE=?></SELECT>
Multiple Choice <SELECT MULTIPLE> (can select more than one)
Option <OPTION> (items that can be selected)
Default Option <OPTION SELECTED>
Input box size <TEXTAREA ROWS=? COLS=?></TEXTAREA>
Name of box <TEXTAREA NAME="***"></TEXTAREA>
TABLES
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3.0 Define Table <TABLE></TABLE>
3.0 Table Border <TABLE BORDER></TABLE> (either on or off)
N1.1 Table Border <TABLE BORDER=?></TABLE> (you can set the value)
N1.1 Cell Spacing <TABLE CELLSPACING=?>
N1.1 Cell Padding <TABLE CELLPADDING=?>
N1.1 Desired width <TABLE WIDTH=?> (in pixels)
N1.1 Width percent <TABLE WIDTH=%> (percentage of page)
3.0 Table Row <TR></TR>
3.0 Alignment <TR ALIGN=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER VALIGN=TOP|MIDDLE|BOTTOM>
3.0 Table Cell <TD></TD> (must appear within table rows)
3.0 Alignment <TD ALIGN=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER VALIGN=TOP|MIDDLE|BOTTOM>
3.0 No linebreaks <TD NOWRAP>
3.0 Columns to span <TD COLSPAN=?>
3.0 Rows to span <TD ROWSPAN=?>
N1.1 Desired width <TD WIDTH=?> (in pixels)
N1.1 Width percent <TD WIDTH=%> (percentage of table)
3.0 Table Header <TH></TH> (same as data, except bold centered)
3.0 Alignment <TH ALIGN=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER VALIGN=TOP|MIDDLE|BOTTOM>
3.0 No linebreaks <TH NOWRAP>
3.0 Columns to span <TH COLSPAN=?>
3.0 Rows to span <TH ROWSPAN=?>
N1.1 Desired width <TH WIDTH=?> (in pixels)
N1.1 Width percent <TH WIDTH=%> (percentage of table)
3.0 Table Caption <CAPTION></CAPTION>
3.0 Alignment <CAPTION ALIGN=TOP|BOTTOM> (above or below table)
MISCELLANEOUS (generally not necessary for basic page design)
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Comment <!-- *** --> (not displayed by the browser)
Author's address <ADDRESS></ADDRESS>
Searchable <ISINDEX> (indicates a searchable index)
N1.0 Prompt <ISINDEX PROMPT="***"> (text to prompt input)
Send search <A HREF="URL?***"></a> (use a real question mark)
URL of this file <BASE HREF="URL"> (must be in header)
Relationship <LINK REV="***" REL="***" HREF="URL"> (in header)
Meta information <META> (must be in header)
Identifier <NEXTID> (must be in header)
(c) 1995 Kevin Werbach. Noncommercial redistribution permitted.