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Tutorials
Lesson:

  1. What is HTML?

  2. HTML Editors
  3. HTML Elements and Attributes

  4. HTML Headings and Paragraphs

  5. HTML Formatting

  6. HTML Links

  7. HTML Images

  8. HTML Tables

  9. HTML Lists

  10. HTML Forms

Exercises
For every lesson:

  1. Hyper Text Markup Language

  2. Notepad

  3. Start tag to End tag and name="value"

  4. <h1> and <p>

  5. <b> and <i>

  6. <a href=>

  7. <img src=>

  8. <th> <tr> and <td>

  9. <OL> and <UL>

  10. <form>



My accounts:







Lesson 3: HTML Elements and Attributes


HTML documents are defined by HTML elements.

HTML Elements

An HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:

Start tag * Element content End tag *
<p> This is a paragraph </p>
<a href="default.htm"> This is a link </a>
<br>    

* The start tag is often called the opening tag. The end tag is often called the closing tag.


HTML Element Syntax

  • An HTML element starts with a start tag / opening tag
  • An HTML element ends with an end tag / closing tag
  • The element content is everything between the start and the end tag
  • Some HTML elements have empty content
  • Empty elements are closed in the start tag
  • Most HTML elements can have attributes

Tip: You will learn about attributes in the next chapter of this tutorial.


Nested HTML Elements

Most HTML elements can be nested (can contain other HTML elements).

HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.


HTML Document Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>

</html>

The example above contains 3 HTML elements.


HTML Example Explained

The <p> element:

<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>

The <p> element defines a paragraph in the HTML document.
The element has a start tag <p> and an end tag </p>.
The element content is: This is my first paragraph.

The <body> element:

<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>

The <body> element defines the body of the HTML document.
The element has a start tag <body> and an end tag </body>.
The element content is another HTML element (a p element).

The <html> element:

<html>

<body>
<p>This is my first paragraph.</p>
</body>

</html>

The <html> element defines the whole HTML document.
The element has a start tag <html> and an end tag </html>.
The element content is another HTML element (the body element).


Don't Forget the End Tag

Some HTML elements might display correctly even if you forget the end tag:

<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is a paragraph

The example above works in most browsers, because the closing tag is considered optional.

Never rely on this. Many HTML elements will produce unexpected results and/or errors if you forget the end tag .


Empty HTML Elements

HTML elements with no content are called empty elements.

<br> is an empty element without a closing tag (the <br> tag defines a line break).

Tip: In XHTML, all elements must be closed. Adding a slash inside the start tag, like <br />, is the proper way of closing empty elements in XHTML (and XML).


HTML Tip: Use Lowercase Tags

HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>. Many web sites use uppercase HTML tags.

W3Schools use lowercase tags because the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase in HTML 4, and demands lowercase tags in XHTML.









Attributes provide additional information about HTML elements.


HTML Attributes

  • HTML elements can have attributes
  • Attributes provide additional information about an element
  • Attributes are always specified in the start tag
  • Attributes come in name/value pairs like: name="value"

Attribute Example

HTML links are defined with the <a> tag. The link address is specified in the href attribute:

Example

<a href="http://www.w3schools.com">This is a link</a>

Try it yourself »


Always Quote Attribute Values

Attribute values should always be enclosed in quotes.

Double style quotes are the most common, but single style quotes are also allowed.

Note Tip: In some rare situations, when the attribute value itself contains quotes, it is necessary to use single quotes: name='John "ShotGun" Nelson'

HTML Tip: Use Lowercase Attributes

Attribute names and attribute values are case-insensitive.

However, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase attributes/attribute values in their HTML 4 recommendation.

Newer versions of (X)HTML will demand lowercase attributes.

HTML Attributes Reference

A complete list of legal attributes for each HTML element is listed in our: HTML Tag Reference.

Below is a list of some attributes that can be used on any HTML element:

Attribute Description
class Specifies one or more classnames for an element (refers to a class in a style sheet)
id Specifies a unique id for an element
style Specifies an inline CSS style for an element
title Specifies extra information about an element (displayed as a tool tip)

For more information about global attributes: HTML Global Attributes Reference.







Click here to take the exercises of this lesson -->