Quick Reference to HTML tags.

If this page doesn't answer your question, try posting to the USENET group comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html, or one of the other three authoring groups. Also, if you're just learning HTML, you're better off with Ian Graham's pages, or for more explanation but no examples see Kevin Werbach's Bare Bones Guide to HTML.

I've documented every option of every tag that I could find, and that Netscape supports. The only section I've left out is Forms. There are two Netscape 1.1 tags that I haven't been able to find documentation for: <CELL> and <COLORMAP>. Also, there's a Netscape 2.0 tag that's undocumented: <HYPE>. If you have any info on them, please email me.

Tags marked "N1.1" are supported in Netscape 1.1 and up, but not in Mosaic 2.6. Those marked "N2.0" are supported in Netscape 2.0, but not in Mosaic 2.6. Bascially, although around 80-90% of transfers are to Netscape browsers, 10-20% are to non-Netscape browsers. So when you write your pages, keep in mind that it should look good no matter what browser the person is using. If something's understood by Netscape but not Mosaic, chances are that quite a few people won't be seeing it. And if it's understood by both Mosaic and Netscape, odds are it's understood by most browsers. If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line.

GENERAL

The entire document must be enclosed in <HTML> and </HTML>. Every HTML document has two parts, the "head" and the "body":

N2.0: FRAMES

HEAD ELEMENTS

HEADINGS

<H# N1.1:ALIGN=LEFT|CENTER|RIGHT> ... </H#>

Header 1

Header 2

Header 3

Header 4

Header 5
Header 6

SEPARATORS

o <P ALIGN=LEFT|CENTER|RIGHT>: Paragraph break (double carriage return), to wit:

o <BR CLEAR=LEFT|RIGHT|ALL>: Line break (single charrage return), to wit:
o N1.1: Using <NOBR> and </NOBR> you can specify that a paragraph like this one shouldn't be broken into different lines. This is rarely useful.

For small phrases like "Figure 1.1", a non-breaking space (&nbsp;) is better than <nobr>

o N1.1:<WBR>: Specify where line breaks are acceptable.

o <HR N1.1:SIZE=5 N1.1:ALIGN=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER N1.1:WIDTH=[pixels] N1.1:WIDTH=75% N1.1:NOSHADE> Horizontal Ruled Line:

TABLES

<TABLE BORDER=5 CELLSPACING=10 CELLPADDING=5 WIDTH=75%>
<CAPTION ALIGN=BOTTOM>
<TR> <TH ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2> </TH> <TH ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=BOTTOM> </TH> </TR>
<TR> <TD ROWSPAN=2> </TD> <TD ALIGN=RIGHT> </TD> <TD> </TD> </TR>
<TR ALIGN=BASELINE NOWRAP> <TD> </TD> <TD WIDTH=50%> </TD> </TR>
</TABLE>

LISTS

UNORDERED

<UL N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE>
<LI N1.1TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> apples
<LI N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> bananas
</UL>

MENU

An Unordered List of smaller paragraphs, this is similar to UL but is formatted (if possible) in a more compact manner. 
<MENU N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE>
  <LI N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> apples
  <LI N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> bananas
</MENU>
  • apples
  • bananas

    • DIR

    A list of short elements, typically less than 20 characters in length. These may may be arranged in columns across the page, as opposed to one above the other. This is browser dependent. 
    <DIR N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE>
  <LI N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> apples
  <LI N1.1:TYPE=DISC|CIRCLE|SQUARE> bananas
</DIR>
  • apples
  • bananas

    • NUMBERED 

    <OL N1.1:TYPE=A|a|I|i|1 N1.1:START=5>
  <LI N1.1:TYPE=A|a|I|i|1 N1.1:VALUE=?> oranges
  <LI N1.1:TYPE=A|a|I|i|1 N1.1:VALUE=?> peaches
  <LI N1.1:TYPE=A|a|I|i|1 N1.1:VALUE=?> grapes
</OL>
    1. oranges
    2. peaches
    3. grapes

    DEFINITION

      <DL>
  <DT> THHGTGG
  <DD> "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was originally a BBC
             radio series which ....
  <DT> Netrek
  <DD> Netrek is a networked multiuser game. It is not a simple
             shoot-em-up game, but ....
  </DL>
    THHGTGG
    "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was originally a BBC radio series which ....
    Netrek
    Netrek is a networked multiuser game. It is not a simple shoot-em-up game, but ....

    PREFORMATTED TEXT

    ALIGNMENT

    REFERENCES

    ADDRESS <ADDRESS> ... </ADDRESS>

    Martin C. Martin <mcm@cs.cmu.edu>

    CHARACTER STYLES

    Logical (Preferred) Physical (Discouraged)

    SPECIAL CHARACTERS

    Any special character can be specified using the form &#?;, where ? is the ASCII number of the character. 
    &#34;  &quot;   " double quotation mark  &#175; &macr;   ¯ macron                 
&#38;  &amp;    & ampersand              &#176; &deg;    ° degree sign            
&#60;  &lt;     < less than              &#177; &plusmn; ± plus-or-minus sign          
&#62;  &gt;     > greather than          &#178; &sup2;   ² superscript two 
&#160; &nbsp;     nonbreaking space      &#179; &sup3;   ³ superscript three        
&#161; &iexcl;  ¡ inverted exclamation   &#180; &acute;  ´ acute accent             
&#162; &cent;   ¢ cent sign              &#181; &micro;  µ micro sign                
&#163; &pound;  £ pound sign             &#182; &para;   ¶ pilcrow (paragraph sign) 
&#164; &curren; ¤ general currency sign  &#183; &middot; · middle dot               
&#165; &yen;    ¥ yen sign               &#184; &cedil;  ¸ cedilla                  
&#166; &brvbar; ¦ broken (vertical) bar  &#185; &sup1;   ¹ superscript one          
&#167; &sect;   § section sign           &#186; &ordm;   º ordinal indicator, male  
&#168; &uml;    ¨ umlaut/dieresis        &#187; &raquo;  » angle quote mark, right
&#169; &copy;   © copyright sign         &#188; &frac14; ¼ fraction one-quarter          
&#170; &ordf;   ª ordinal indicator, fem &#189; &frac12; ½ fraction one-half             
&#171; &laquo;  « angle quote mark, left &#190; &frac34; ¾ fraction three-quarters       
&#172; &not;    ¬ not sign               &#191; &iquest; ¿ inverted question mark        
&#173; &shy;    ­ soft hyphen            &#215; &times;  × multiply sign                 
&#174; &reg;    ® registered sign        &#247; &div;    ÷ division sign

    Characters from foreign alphabets

    N2.0: JAVA

    N2.0: NETSCAPE LIVESCRIPT