REC-html40-971218

HTML 4.0 specification

Recommendation W3C December 18, 1997

This version:

Http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218

Latest version:

Http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40

Previous version:

Http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-html40-971107

Editors:

Dave Raggett < [email protected] >
Arnaud Le Hors < [email protected] >
Ian Jacobs < [email protected] >

Introduction

This specification defines the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) version 4.0, the language used for publishing on the World Wide Web. In addition to the text, multimedia features and hyperlinks present in previous versions of the HTML language, HTML 4.0 supports new multimedia features, scripts, style sheets, improved printing and more accessible documents for people with physical disabilities. The version of HTML 4.0 also successfully implemented the internationalization of documents, the purpose of which is to make the Web truly world-wide.

HTML 4.0 is an SGML application that complies with the International Standard ISO 8879 - Standard Generalized Markup Language [ISO8879] .

Status of this document

This document was viewed by W3C members and other stakeholders and organizations, and approved by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. This is a permanent document; It can be used as a reference or can be cited in other documents as normative. The role of the W3C in this recommendation is to draw attention to this specification and expand its scope. This expands the functionality and the ability to interact on the Web.

W3C recommends users and authors (especially document creation tools) to use the version of HTML 4.0 instead of HTML 3.2 (see [HTML32]). To ensure compatibility with previous versions, W3C also recommends HTML 3.2 and HTML 2.0 support for HTML 4.0 interpretation tools.

A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR .

Discussion on the functions of HTML occurs at [email protected] .

Available Formats

The W3C HTML 4.0 recommendation can also be obtained in the following formats:

Text file:

Http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218/html40.txt (723 Kb),

A gzip tar file containing HTML documents:

Http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218/html40.tgz (339 Kb),

A zip file containing HTML documents (this is a '.zip' file, not a '.exe' file):

Http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218/html40.zip (372 Кб),

Postscript file:

Http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218/html40.ps (4.4 MB, 363 pages),

PDF file:

Http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218/html40.pdf (2.1 MB).

In the event of discrepancies between the electronic and printed forms of the specification, an electronic version should be used.

Languages

The only normative version is the English version of this document. However, translations of this document can be found at http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html40-updates/translations.shtml .

Errors

The list of errors found in the specification is located at http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html40-updates/html40-errata.shtml

On the errors found in this document, report to [email protected] .

Content

1. About the HTML 4.0 specification
   1. Organization of the BOM
   2. The agreements adopted in the document
      1. Elements and attributes
      2. Remarks and examples
   3. Acknowledgments
   4. Copyright Information
2. Introduction to HTML 4.0
   1. What is the World Wide Web?
      1. Introduction to the URI
      2. Fragment identifiers
      3. Relative URIs
   2. What is HTML?
      1. A Brief History of HTML
   3. HTML 4.0
      1. Internationalization
      2. Availability
      3. Tables
      4. Compound documents
      5. Style Sheets
      6. Scripts
      7. Print this page
   4. Creating documents in HTML 4.0 format
      1. Separation of structure and representation
      2. Universal access to the Web
      3. Help to user agents in sequential imaging
3. About SGML and HTML
   1. Introduction to SGML
   2. SGML constructs used in HTML
      1. Elements
      2. Attributes
      3. References to symbols
      4. Comments
   3. How to read HTML DTD
      1. DTD Comments
      2. Defining parameter combinations
      3. Element declarations
         • Content Model Definitions
      4. Attribute declarations
         • DTD combinations and attribute definitions
         • Logical Attributes
4. Compliance: requirements and recommendations
   1. Definitions
   2. SGML
   3. Content type text / html
5. HTML document representation - Character sets, character encodings, and entities
   1. Document character set
   2. Character encodings
      1. Choosing an encoding
         • Notes on some encodings
      2. Specifying a character set
   3. References to symbols
      1. Numerical character references
      2. Combinations of references to symbols
   4. Unexpected symbols
6. Basic HTML data types - Information about symbols, colors, lengths, URIs, types of content, etc.
   1. Information about the register
   2. The basic types of SGML
   3. Text strings
   4. URI
   5. Colors
      1. Notes on using colors
   6. Lengths
   7. Content types (MIME types)
   8. Language Codes
   9. Encodings
   10. Single characters
   11. date and time
   12. Reference types
   13. Device Descriptors
   14. Scenario data
   15. Data of style sheets
   16. Targeted personnel names
7. Global document structure in HTML format - HEAD and BODY sections of the document
   1. Introduction to the HTML document structure
   2. Information about the HTML version
   3. The HTML element
   4. Document header
      1. HEAD element
      2. TITLE element
      3. Attribute title
      4. Metadata
         • Specifying metadata
         • The META element
         • Metadata Profiles
   5. Body of the document
      1. BODY element
      2. Element IDs: id and class attributes
      3. Elements of the block's frost and built-in elements
      4. Grouping of elements: elements DIV and SPAN
      5. Headings: elements H1 , H2 , H3 , H4 , H5 , H6
      6. Element ADDRESS
8. Information about the language and the direction of the text - Texts in different languages
   1. Specifying the Content Language: The lang attribute
      1. Language Codes
      2. Inheritance of language codes
      3. Interpretation of language codes
   2. Specifying the direction of text and tables: the dir attribute
      1. Introduction to the bidirectional algorithm
      2. Inheritance of information about the direction of the text
      3. Setting the direction of the embedded text
      4. Priority over bidirectional algorithm: BDO element
      5. Symbol references for direction and union control
      6. Style Sheets and Bidirectionality
9. Text - Paragraphs, lines and phrases
   1. Unexpected symbols
   2. Structured Text
      1. Elements of phrases: EM , STRONG , DFN , CODE , SAMP , KBD , VAR , CITE , ABBR and ACRONYM
      2. Quotes: BLOCKQUOTE and Q elements
         • Display information in quotes
      3. Upper and lower indexes: SUB and SUP elements
   3. Lines and paragraphs
      1. Paragraphs: P elements
      2. Managing the transition to the next line
         • Forced to the next line: BR element
         • Barring a new line
      3. Movements
      4. Formatted text: PRE element
      5. Visual presentation of paragraphs
   4. Marking changes in the document: INS and DEL elements
10. Lists - Unordered, ordered lists and definition lists
    1. Introduction to Lists
    2. Unordered lists ( UL ), ordered lists ( OL ), and list items ( LI )
    3. Definition lists : DL , DT, and DD elements
       1. Visual representation of lists
    4. DIR and MENU elements
11. Tables
    1. Introduction to Tables
    2. Elements of the construction of tables
       1. The TABLE element
          • Table direction
       2. Captions of tables: CAPTION element
       3. GRtsppy lines: elements THEAD , TFOOT and TBODY
       4. Column groups: COLGROUP and COL elements
          • COLGROUP element
          • Element COL
          • Counting the number of columns in a table
          • Counting Column Widths
       5. Table rows: TR element
       6. Table cells: TH and TD elements
          • Cells, span multiple rows or columns
    3. Formatting tables with visual user agents
       1. Borders and rules
       2. Horizontal and vertical alignment
          • Inheritance of alignment parameters
       3. Cell Fields
    4. Presentation of tables by non-visual user agents
       1. Link header information to data cells
       2. Categorization of cells
       3. Algorithm for searching header information
    5. Example table
12. References - Hypertext and device-independent links
    1. Introduction to references and anchors
       1. Go to the resource referenced by the link
       2. Other reference relationships
       3. Assigning anchors and links
       4. Headers of links
       5. Internationalization and Links
    2. Element A
       1. Syntax of the names of anchors
       2. Nested links are not allowed
       3. Anchors with id attribute
       4. Unreachable and undetectable resources
    3. Relationship of documents: LINK element
       1. Direct and Backlinks
       2. Links and external style sheets
       3. Links and search engines
    4. Path information: BASE element
       1. Resolution of Relative URIs
13. Objects, Images and Applets
    1. Introduction to objects, images and applets
    2. Image inclusion: IMG element
    3. General inclusion: OBJECT element
       1. Rules for the presentation of objects
       2. Object initialization: PARAM element
       3. Global naming schemes for objects
       4. Announcing and initializing an object
    4. Enable applet: APPLET element
    5. Comments on the implemented documents
    6. Navigation maps
       1. Client navigation maps: MAP and AREA elements
          • Examples of client navigational charts
       2. Server-side navigation maps
    7. Visual representation of images, objects and applets
       1. Width and height
       2. Space around images and objects
       3. Borders
       4. Alignment
    8. How to specify an alternate text
14. Style Sheets - Style in HTML documents
    1. Introduction to style sheets
    2. How to add style to HTML
       1. Set the default style sheet language
       2. Built-in style info
       3. Style information in title: STYLE element
       4. Types of devices
    3. External Style Sheets
       1. Preferred and alternative style sheets
       2. Specifying external style sheets
    4. Cascading Style Sheets
       1. Cascades that are device independent
       2. Inheritance and cascades
    5. How to hide style information from user agents
    6. Linking style sheets using HTTP headers
15. Alignment, font styles and horizontal separators
    1. Formatting
       1. Background color
       2. Alignment
       3. Attached objects
          • Attaching an object
          • Wrapping an object with text
    2. Fonts
       1. Elements defining the font style: elements TT , I , B , BIG , SMALL , STRIKE , S and U
       2. Font control elements: FONT and BASEFONT
    3. Separators: an element of HR
16. Frames - A document in several windows
    1. Introduction to Frames
    2. Frame Location
       1. FRAMESET element
          • Rows and columns
          • Nested frame sets
          • Separation of data between frames
       2. Element FRAME
          • Specifying the original contents of a frame
          • Visual representation of the frame
    3. Defining the purpose of the frame
       1. Set the default target for links
       2. Semantics of goals
    4. Alternate Content
       1. Element NOFRAMES
       2. Long descriptions of frames
    5. Built-in frames: the IFRAME element
17. Forms - User-filled forms: text boxes, buttons, menus, etc.
    1. Introduction to Forms
    2. Control elements
       1. Types of control elements
    3. FORM element
    4. INPUT element
       1. Types of control elements created with the INPUT element
       2. Examples of forms with control elements such as INPUT
    5. BUTTON element
    6. Elements SELECT , OPTGROUP and OPTION
       1. Pre-selected options
    7. Element TEXTAREA
    8. ISINDEX element
    9. Labels
       1. LABEL element
    10. Adding structures to the forms: FIELDSET and LEGEND elements
    11. Transition of focus to an element
        1. Navigate using the Tab key
        2. Access keys
    12. Disconnected controls and read-only elements
        1. Disconnected controls
        2. Read-only controls
    13. Sending a form
        1. Form submission method
        2. Successful controls
        3. Form data processing
           • The first step: determining successful control elements
           • The second step: building a form data set
           • The third step: encoding a set of data forms
           • Fourth step: transmission of the encoded form data set
        4. Form content types
           • Application / x-www-form-urlencoded
           • Multipart / form-data
18. Scripts - Animated documents and smart forms
    1. Introduction to scripts
    2. Development of documents for user agents that support scripts
       1. SCRIPT element
       2. Specifying the language of the script
          • Default Script Language
          • Local application of the script language
          • Link from a script to HTML documents
       3. Internal events
       4. Dynamic change of documents
    3. Development of documents for user agents that do not support scripts
       1. NOSCRIPT element
       2. How to hide the script from user agents
19. Background information SGML for HTML - Formal HTML definition and validation
    1. Verifying the correctness of the document
    2. Example of the SGML directory
20. SGML-HTML 4.0 Announcement
    1. SGML declaration
21. Document Type Definition
22. Transitional Document Type Definition
23. Frameset Document Type Definition
24. Character entity references in HTML 4.0
    1. Introduction to character
    2. Character entity references for ISO 8859-1 characters
       1. The list of characters
    3. Character entity references for symbols, mathematical symbols, and Greek letters
       1. The list of characters
    4. Character entity references for markup-significant and internationalization characters
       1. The list of characters

1. Differences between HTML 3.2 and HTML 4.0
   1. Differences in elements
      1. New items
      2. Unwanted elements
      3. Obsolete Items
   2. Differences in attributes
   3. Differences in availability
   4. Differences in metadata
   5. Differences in the text
   6. Differences in references
   7. Differences in tables
   8. Differences in images, objects and navigation maps
   9. Differences in forms
   10. Differences in stylesheets
   11. Differences in frames
   12. Differences in scripts
   13. Differences in internationalization
2. Performance, Implementation, and Design Notes
   1. Notes on invalid documents
   2. Special characters in URI attribute values
      1. Non-ASCII characters in URI attribute values
      2. Ampersands in URI attribute values
   3. SGML implementation notes
      1. Line breaks
      2. Specifying non-HTML data
         • Element content
         • Attribute values
      3. SGML features with limited support
      4. Boolean attributes
      5. Marked Sections
      6. Processing Instructions
      7. Shorthand markup
   4. Notes on the search engines engines index your Web site
      1. Search robots
         • The robots.txt file
         • Robots and the META element
   5. Notes on tables
      1. Design rationale
         • Dynamic reformatting
         • Incremental display
         • Structure and presentation
         • Row and column groups
         • Accessibility
      2. Recommended Layout Algorithms
         • Fixed Layout Algorithm
         • Autolayout Algorithm
   6. Notes on forms
      1. Incremental display
      2. Future projects
   7. Notes on scripting
      1. Reserved syntax for future script macros
         • Current Practice for Script Macros
   8. Notes on frames
   9. Notes on accessibility
   10. Notes on security
       1. Security issues for forms

• References
  1. Normative references
  2. Informative references
• Index of elements
• Attribute Index
• Pointer

Copyright © 1997 W3C ( MIT , INRIA , Keio )