HTML Tags References

List of HTML tags

<a>

Contains a hyperlink to another website.

<abbr>

Contains an abbreviation and optionally the full description of the abbreviation in its title attribute.

Contains contact information of an author of either a <body> or an <article> element.

<area>

Contains coordinates for a defined area of an image map (an interactive image), and optionally has an attached link.

Contains larger text pieces. It is good pratice to keep news posts, blog posts, forum posts, comments etc. inside this tag also each article element should include a heading (<h1> to <h6>).

<aside>

Contains content aside from the page content. If used inside an article it contains content related to the article for instance a glossary. Otherwise it contains content that is related to the site in general - it could be additional navigation, advertisement, a blogroll etc.

<audio>

An audio player that is able to play the sound clip that is referred to by the element's source attribute.

<b>

Contains keywords. Makes the encapsulated text bold.

<base>

Contains the base URL for all relative URLS in the document.

<bdi>

Text directionality isolation

<bdo>

Text directionality formatting

Contains long quatations from another source. The source is optionally displayed in the element's 'cite'.

<body>

Contains the main content of an HTML document. There must be only one <body> element in a document.

<br>

Produces a line break.

Displays a clickable button. The encapsulated text will make up the name of the button.

Is used to draw graphics via scripting - usually JavaScript.

Contains a caption for a table.

<cite>

Contains the title of a book, movie, painting, TV Show, scientific article etc.

<code>

Contains computer code.

<col>

Is used to define properties for columns in a table e.g. the background-color. It is typically a descendant of <colgroup>.

Contains <col> elements that define the properties for a group of columns within a table.

<data>

Machine-readable equivalent

Contains a set of option elements that represent predefined options for other controls.

<dd>

Contains a description, value or definition of a definition term element (<dt>) in a description list <dl>.

<del>

Contains text that is removed from the document. The encapsulated text will be displayed with a horizontal line through the text.

Contains additional information that will be intially hidden. It will be displayed as a 'Details' button by the browser and the additional information can be displayed by clicking on it.

<dfn>

Contains the defining instance of a term.

A part of an application the user interacts with to perform a task.

<div>

Does not mean anything on its own but is useful to group several elements in a block. It will typically be used together with global attributes as id and class for styling purposes. It should only be used when no other semantic element (e.g. article, nav, aside) is adequate.

<dl>

Contains zero or more name value groups (description lists) that consist of on or more names (<dt>) that is described by one more values (<dd>).

<dt>

Contains a term or a name and is a part of a description list. The term or name is described by the description element (<dd>).

<em>

Contains text that has stress emphasis. The encapsulated text will by default be displayed in italic type.

<embed>

Facilitates an integration point for an external (typically non-HTML) application or interactive content (a plug-in). The 'src' attribute contains the adress of the resource being embedded.

Contains a set of form controls that can be grouped under a common name if a <legend> element is included.

Is a descendant of the <figure> element, which contains a figure or illustraion, and contains a caption of that(e.g. a description of an image inside the <figure> element).

Contains a figure, image, diagram etc. with an optional description in a <figcaption> element.

Contains information about about its nearest sectioning content or sectioning root element (<article>, <aside>, <nav>, <section>). The information would typically be such as who wrote the section, copy rights, links to related articles or documents.

<form>

Contains a group of form related elements (<button>, <input>, <select>, <textarea> etc.) some of which with editable values that require user interaction. The value(s) can thereafter be submitted to a server for processing.

Contains headings for their sections. They are ranked in such a way that <h1> defines the most important heading and <h6> the least.

<head>

Contains document metadata. Its content is not visible for the common user of the web site. It contains elements that describe the title and the content of the document and furthermore elements that link to or defines scripts and CSS.

Contains a group of introductory or navigational aids for it nearest ancestor sectioning content (e.g. <article>, <body> <section> etc.). If the body element is the nearest ancestor, then it applies to the whole page.

<hr>

Thematic break

<html>

This tag starts and ends the HTML document. It is commonly referred to as the root element. All other elements must be contained inside of this.

<i>

Contains a span of text that differs from the normal text in some way. It could be a technical term, an idomatic phrase from another language, a thought or the name of car.

Is used to embed another HTML document into the current page. The src attribute contains the adress of the embedded HTML document.

<img>

Is used to include an image. The src attribute contains the source of the included image.

<input>

Produces an input field where the user can enter data. The type attribute defines which kind of input field there shall be displayed (e.g. text, email, color, submit, file, password etc.) - therefore the input field can vary in many ways depending on this attribute.

<ins>

Contains inserted text. The text will be underlined by default when displayed by the browser.

<kbd>

Typically contains keyboard input but can also contain other input such as voice commands.

Cryptographic key-pair generator form control

<label>

Contains a caption in a user interface. It can be associated with a form control (<input>) by using the ‘for’ attribute or by containing the form control inside the label element itself.

Contains a caption that describe the content of its parent field set.

<li>

Contains a list item and the element must be a descendant of <ol>, <ul> or <menu> that define which type of list the list item is a part of.

<link>

Is used to include an external resource in your HTML document. It will often be used to link to style sheets.

<main>

Contains the main content of the document. The content in the <main> element should be unique and therefore not be site navigation, site logos and banners, copy right information etc.

<map>

Is used in combination with the <img> element and one or more descendant <area> elements to define an image map (interactive image).

<mark>

Contains text that is marked or highlighted for reference purposes. For instance <mark> could be used to highlight an important part of a qoute because it is relevant in a particular context. The encasulated text will be highlighted.

<math>

MathML root

<menu>

Menu of commands

Menu command

<meta>

Contains all the metadata information that cannot be described by the other meta data related elements (<base>, <link>, <script>, <style>, <title>). It could be a description of the sites content - football, computers, video games etc.

<meter>

Shows a measurement within a known range or a fractional value (e.g. disk usage, the fraction of a voting population that have selected a particular candidate, etc.). This is also known as a gauge. It should not be used to display progress of a task use the <progress> element instead.

<nav>

Contains a section with navigational links to other pages or to specific sections of the document.

Contains a section of HMTL that is inserted if the script type is not supported or if scripting is disabled in the browser settings.

Is used to include an external resource, which wil either be treated as an image, as a nested browsing context or as an external resource to be processed by a plugin.

<ol>

The ordered list contains several list items (<li>), where the items have been intentionally ordered. Changing the order would change the meaning of the document.

Contains <option> elements and is used to categorize or organize the options with a common label.

Contains one option in a <select> element or as a part of a list with suggestions in a <datalist> element.

Contains the result of a calculation performed by a user or application.

<p>

Contains a paragraph of text.

<param>

Contains attributes that define parameters for plugins invoked by <object> elements.

<pre>

Block of preformatted text

Is used to display the completion progress of a task.

<q>

Contains a quote from another source. There will be displayed quotation marks around the encapsulated text.

<rb>

Ruby base

<rp>

Parenthesis for ruby annotation text

<rt>

Ruby annotation text

<rtc>

Ruby annotation text container

<ruby>

Allows on or more spans of phrasing content to be marked with ruby annotations, which is short runs of texts presented alongside base text primarily used in certain parts of Asia as a guide for pronunciation.

<s>

Contains contents that are no longer accurate or no longer relevant. The encapsulated text will be displayed with a horizontal line through the text.

<samp>

Contains sample or quoted output from another program or computing system.

Contains dynamic scripts or data blocks. It is possible to import the script from an external file from the ‘src’ attribute.

Contains a thematic grouping of content and each section should be identified typically by a heading (<h1> to <h6>) as a child of the element.

The select element facilitates a control for selecting among a set of options, which will be defined by the <option> element.

<small>

Contains disclaimers, legal restrictions or copyrights and such. The encapsulated text will be displayed in a smaller font size.

Contains attributes that refers to media resources for media elements. It does not represent anything on its own.

<span>

oes not mean anything on its own but is useful to group inline-elements in a document when used together with global attributes as id and class.

Contains text that is considered strongly important, serious or urgent and will typically be displayed in bold.

<style>

Contains CSS that defines the appearance and general layout of the web site.

<sub>

Subscript

Contains a summary of a <details> element and when clicked on, it shows or hides the details.

<sup>

Superscript

<svg>

SVG root

<table>

Contains data with more than one dimension in form of a table. All other table related elements must be descendants of this.

<tbody>

Contains several rows in table that represent the primary content.

<td>

Contains the data in a table cell.

Contains fragments of HTML that can be cloned and inserted in the document by script.

Creates a text editing environment that in some cases can be interacted with by a user - the interaction will change the elment's raw value

<tfoot>

Contains the block of rows that summarize the columns in a table.

<th>

Contains the header cell in a table.

<thead>

Contains and groups the head row of a table.

<time>

Contains date, year, week, time or any of them separately. With the ’datetime’ attribute it can be used to connect the encapsulated text(e.g. New Years Eve) with a specific date (31-12-2015).

<title>

Contains the title of the HTML document and is shown in the browser’s title bar.

<tr>

Contains a row of cells in a table.

<track>

Contains a pieces of text that is referred to by its source attribute. The text will be displayed while an audio or video file is playing.

<u>

Defines the encapsulated text as keywords and makes thext underlined - it should generally be used at a minimum because underlined text could be perceived as links.

<ul>

The unordered list contains several list items (<li>) and displays them by default with bullet points.

<var>

Contains a variable.

<video>

A video player that displays the video or movie that is referred to by its source attribute.

<wbr>

Specifies where there shall be added a line-break in a word or a sentence if the text piece cannot be contained in the same line.

List of obsolete HTML tags

These tags are no longer part of the HTML standard. While most browsers may still support them, there is no guarantee that they will continue to do so in the future. Therefore, you should use the alternatives listed instead of these tags.

Contains an acronym and optionally the full description of the acronym in its title attribute.
Use <abbr> instead!

Contains an applet
Use <embed> or <object> instead!

Contains specifications for font appearance (e.g. color, font-size, font-family).
Use the CSS attributes color, font-size and font-family to define fonts instead!

<big>

Encapsulated text will be displayed notably bigger.
Use the CSS attribute font-size to define font size instead!

Encapsulated text will be centered
Use the CSS attribute font-align to center text instead!

<dir>

Contains a directory - a listed collection of file names.
Use <ul> instead!

<font>

Contains a piece of text that is styled by the element's attributes (e.g. font-color, font-size etc.).
Use the CSS font-family, color to define fonts instead!

<frame>

Its attributes contains a reference to another HTML document and the element is used to display this in particular area. It should be contained in a <frameset>
Use <iframe> instead!

Contains a set of frames
Use <iframe> instead!

Contains a section of HMTL that is inserted if frames is not supported by a given browser.
Use <iframe> instead!

Makes a horizontal line through the encapsulated text (strikethrough text).
Use <del> or <s> instead!

<tt>

Makes the encapsulated text teletype text.
Use CSS to define font-family instead!