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HTML 4.01 Specification

W3C Recommendation 24 December 1999

This version:

http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224

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Latest version of HTML 4.01:

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401

Latest version of HTML 4:

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4

Latest version of HTML:

http://www.w3.org/TR/html

Previous version of HTML 4.01:

http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/PR-html40-19990824

Previous HTML 4 Recommendation:

http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424

Editors:

Dave Raggett <[email-masked]>

Arnaud Le Hors, W3C

Ian Jacobs, W3C

Copyright
©1997-1999 W3C® (MIT, INRIA,
Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability,
trademark,
document
use and software
licensing rules apply.

Abstract

This specification defines the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the
publishing language of the World Wide Web. This specification defines HTML 4.01,
which is a subversion of HTML 4. In addition to the text, multimedia, and
hyperlink features of the previous versions of HTML (HTML 3.2 [HTML32] and HTML 2.0 [RFC1866]), HTML 4 supports more multimedia options,
scripting languages, style sheets, better printing facilities, and documents
that are more accessible to users with disabilities. HTML 4 also takes great
strides towards the internationalization of documents, with the goal of making
the Web truly World Wide.

HTML 4 is an SGML application conforming to International Standard ISO 8879
-- Standard Generalized Markup Language [ISO8879].

Status of this document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its
publication. Other documents may supersede this document. The latest status of
this document series is maintained at the W3C.

This document specifies HTML 4.01, which is part of the HTML 4 line of
specifications. The first version of HTML 4 was HTML 4.0 [HTML40], published on 18 December 1997 and revised 24 April
1998. This specification is the first HTML 4.01 Recommendation. It includes
non-editorial changes since
the 24 April version of HTML 4.0. There have been some changes to the DTDs,
for example. This document obsoletes previous versions of HTML 4.0, although W3C
will continue to make those specifications and their DTDs available at the W3C
Web site.

This document has been reviewed by W3C Members and other interested parties
and has been endorsed by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. It is a stable
document and may be used as reference material or cited as a normative reference
from another document. W3C's role in making the Recommendation is to draw
attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This
enhances the functionality and interoperability of the Web.

W3C recommends that user agents and authors (and in particular, authoring
tools) produce HTML 4.01 documents rather than HTML 4.0 documents. W3C
recommends that authors produce HTML 4 documents instead of HTML 3.2 documents.
For reasons of backward compatibility, W3C also recommends that tools
interpreting HTML 4 continue to support HTML 3.2 and HTML 2.0 as well.

For information about the next generation of HTML, "The Extensible HyperText
Markup Language" [XHTML], please refer to the W3C HTML Activity and the list of W3C Technical Reports.

This document has been produced as part of the W3C HTML Activity. The goals of the HTML Working Group (Members only) are discussed in
the HTML Working Group
charter (Members
only).

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

Public discussion on HTML features takes place on [email-masked] (http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/).

Available languages

The English version of this specification is the only normative version.
However, for translations of this document, see http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html4-updates/translations.

Errata

The list of known errors in this specification is available at:

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html4-updates/errata

Please report errors in this document to [email-masked].

Quick Table of Contents

About the HTML 4 Specification

Introduction to HTML 4

On SGML and HTML

Conformance: requirements and recommendations

HTML Document Representation - Character sets, character
encodings, and entities

Basic HTML data types - Character data, colors, lengths,
URIs, content types, etc.

The global structure of an HTML document - The HEAD and
BODY of a document

Language information and text direction - International
considerations for text

Text - Paragraphs, Lines, and Phrases

Lists - Unordered, Ordered, and Definition Lists

Tables

Links - Hypertext and Media-Independent Links

Objects, Images, and Applets

Style Sheets - Adding style to HTML documents

Alignment, font styles, and horizontal rules

Frames - Multi-view presentation of documents

Forms - User-input Forms: Text Fields, Buttons, Menus, and
more

Scripts - Animated Documents and Smart Forms

SGML reference information for HTML - Formal definition of
HTML and validation

SGML
Declaration of HTML 4

Document
Type Definition

Transitional
Document Type Definition

Frameset
Document Type Definition

Character entity references in HTML 4

Changes

Performance, Implementation, and Design Notes

References

Index of Elements

Index of Attributes

Index

Full Table of Contents

About the HTML 4 Specification

How the specification
is organized

Document
conventions

Elements and
attributes

Notes and
examples

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments for
the current revision

Copyright Notice

Introduction to HTML 4

What is the World
Wide Web?

Introduction
to URIs

Fragment
identifiers

Relative
URIs

What is HTML?

A brief
history of HTML

HTML 4

Internationalization

Accessibility

Tables

Compound
documents

Style
sheets

Scripting

Printing

Authoring
documents with HTML 4

Separate
structure and presentation

Consider
universal accessibility to the Web

Help user
agents with incremental rendering

On SGML and HTML

Introduction to
SGML

SGML constructs
used in HTML

Elements

Attributes

Character
references

Comments

How to read the
HTML DTD

DTD
Comments

Parameter
entity definitions

Element
declarations

Content
model definitions

Attribute
declarations

DTD
entities in attribute definitions

Boolean
attributes

Conformance: requirements and recommendations

Definitions

SGML

The text/html content type

HTML Document Representation - Character sets, character
encodings, and entities

The Document
Character Set

Character
encodings

Choosing an
encoding

Notes on
specific encodings

Specifying the
character encoding

Character
references

Numeric character
references

Character entity
references

Undisplayable
characters

Basic HTML data types - Character data, colors, lengths,
URIs, content types, etc.

Case information

SGML basic types

Text strings

URIs

Colors

Notes on using
colors

Lengths

Content types (MIME
types)

Language codes

Character encodings

Single characters

Dates and times

Link types

Media descriptors

Script data

Style sheet data

Frame target names

The global structure of an HTML document - The HEAD and
BODY of a document

Introduction to
the structure of an HTML document

HTML version
information

The HTML element

The document
head

The HEAD element

The TITLE element

The
title attribute

Meta
data

Specifying
meta data

The
META element

Meta
data profiles

The document
body

The BODY element

Element
identifiers: the id and class attributes

Block-level
and inline elements

Grouping
elements: the DIV and SPAN elements

Headings:
The H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 elements

The ADDRESS element

Language information and text direction - International
considerations for text

Specifying the
language of content: the lang attribute

Language
codes

Inheritance
of language codes

Interpretation
of language codes

Specifying the
direction of text and tables: the dir attribute

Introduction
to the bidirectional algorithm

Inheritance
of text direction information

Setting
the direction of embedded text

Overriding
the bidirectional algorithm: the BDO element

Character
references for directionality and joining control

The effect
of style sheets on bidirectionality

Text - Paragraphs, Lines, and Phrases

White space

Structured
text

Phrase
elements: EM, STRONG,
DFN, CODE, SAMP, KBD, VAR, CITE, ABBR, and ACRONYM

Quotations:
The BLOCKQUOTE and Q
elements

Rendering
quotations

Subscripts
and superscripts: the SUB and SUP elements

Lines and
Paragraphs

Paragraphs:
the P element

Controlling
line breaks

Forcing a
line break: the BR element

Prohibiting
a line break

Hyphenation

Preformatted
text: The PRE element

Visual
rendering of paragraphs

Marking document
changes: The INS and DEL elements

Lists - Unordered, Ordered, and Definition Lists

Introduction to
lists

Unordered lists (UL), ordered
lists (OL), and list items (LI)

Definition lists: the
DL, DT, and DD elements

Visual
rendering of lists

The DIR and MENU elements

Tables

Introduction
to tables

Elements for
constructing tables

The TABLE element

Table
directionality

Table
Captions: The CAPTION element

Row
groups: the THEAD, TFOOT, and TBODY
elements

Column
groups: the COLGROUP and COL elements

The
COLGROUP element

The
COL element

Calculating
the number of columns in a table

Calculating
the width of columns

Table
rows: The TR element

Table
cells: The TH and TD
elements

Cells
that span several rows or columns

Table
formatting by visual user agents

Borders
and rules

Horizontal
and vertical alignment

Inheritance
of alignment specifications

Cell
margins

Table
rendering by non-visual user agents

Associating
header information with data cells

Categorizing
cells

Algorithm
to find heading information

Sample
table

Links - Hypertext and Media-Independent Links

Introduction to
links and anchors

Visiting a
linked resource

Other link
relationships

Specifying
anchors and links

Link
titles

Internationalization
and links

The A element

Syntax of
anchor names

Nested
links are illegal

Anchors
with the id attribute

Unavailable
and unidentifiable resources

Document
relationships: the LINK element

Forward and
reverse links

Links and
external style sheets

Links and
search engines

Path
information: the BASE element

Resolving
relative URIs

Objects, Images, and Applets

Introduction
to objects, images, and applets

Including an
image: the IMG element

Generic
inclusion: the OBJECT element

Rules for
rendering objects

Object
initialization: the PARAM element

Global
naming schemes for objects

Object
declarations and instantiations

Including an
applet: the APPLET element

Notes on
embedded documents

Image maps

Client-side
image maps: the MAP and AREA elements

Client-side
image map examples

Server-side
image maps

Visual
presentation of images, objects, and applets

Width and
height

White
space around images and objects

Borders

Alignment

How to
specify alternate text

Style Sheets - Adding style to HTML documents

Introduction
to style sheets

Adding style
to HTML

Setting
the default style sheet language

Inline
style information

Header
style information: the STYLE element

Media
types

External
style sheets

Preferred
and alternate style sheets

Specifying
external style sheets

Cascading
style sheets

Media-dependent
cascades

Inheritance
and cascading

Hiding style
data from user agents

Linking to
style sheets with HTTP headers

Alignment, font styles, and horizontal rules

Formatting

Background
color

Alignment

Floating
objects

Float
an object

Float
text around an object

Fonts

Font
style elements: the TT, I, B, BIG, SMALL, STRIKE, S, and U elements

Font
modifier elements: FONT and BASEFONT

Rules: the
HR element

Frames - Multi-view presentation of documents

Introduction
to frames

Layout of
frames

The FRAMESET element

Rows
and columns

Nested
frame sets

Sharing
data among frames

The FRAME element

Setting
the initial contents of a frame

Visual
rendering of a frame

Specifying
target frame information

Setting
the default target for links

Target
semantics

Alternate
content

The NOFRAMES element

Long
descriptions of frames

Inline
frames: the IFRAME element

Forms - User-input Forms: Text Fields, Buttons, Menus, and
more

Introduction
to forms

Controls

Control
types

The FORM element

The INPUT element

Control
types created with INPUT

Examples
of forms containing INPUT controls

The BUTTON element

The SELECT, OPTGROUP, and OPTION elements

Pre-selected
options

The TEXTAREA element

The ISINDEX element

Labels

The LABEL element

Adding
structure to forms: the FIELDSET and LEGEND elements

Giving focus to an
element

Tabbing
navigation

Access
keys

Disabled and
read-only controls

Disabled
controls

Read-only
controls

Form
submission

Form
submission method

Successful
controls

Processing
form data

Step
one: Identify the successful controls

Step
two: Build a form data set

Step
three: Encode the form data set

Step
four: Submit the encoded form data set

Form
content types

application/x-www-form-urlencoded

multipart/form-data

Scripts - Animated Documents and Smart Forms

Introduction
to scripts

Designing
documents for user agents that support scripting

The
SCRIPT element

Specifying
the scripting language

The
default scripting language

Local
declaration of a scripting language

References
to HTML elements from a script

Intrinsic
events

Dynamic
modification of documents

Designing
documents for user agents that don't support scripting

The
NOSCRIPT element

Hiding
script data from user agents

SGML reference information for HTML - Formal definition of
HTML and validation

Document
Validation

Sample SGML
catalog

SGML
Declaration of HTML 4

SGML
Declaration

Document
Type Definition

Transitional
Document Type Definition

Frameset
Document Type Definition

Character entity references in HTML 4

Introduction
to character entity references

Character
entity references for ISO 8859-1 characters

The list
of characters

Character
entity references for symbols, mathematical symbols, and Greek letters

The list
of characters

Character
entity references for markup-significant and internationalization
characters

The list
of characters

Changes

Changes
between 24 April 1998 HTML 4.0 and 24 December 1999 HTML 4.01 versions

Changes
to the specification

General
changes

On
SGML and HTML

HTML
Document Representation

Basic
HTML data types

Global
structure of an HTML document

Language
information and text direction

Tables

Links

Objects,
Images, and Applets

Style
Sheets in HTML Documents

Frames

Forms

SGML
Declaration

Strict
DTD

Notes

References

Errors
that were corrected

Minor
typographical errors that were corrected

Clarifications

Known
Browser problems

Changes
between 18 December 1997 and 24 April 1998 versions

Errors
that were corrected

Minor
typographical errors that were corrected

Changes
between HTML 3.2 and HTML 4.0 (18 December 1997)

Changes
to elements

New
elements

Deprecated
elements

Obsolete
elements

Changes
to attributes

Changes
for accessibility

Changes
for meta data

Changes
for text

Changes
for links

Changes
for tables

Changes
for images, objects, and image maps

Changes
for forms

Changes
for style sheets

Changes
for frames

Changes
for scripting

Changes
for internationalization

Performance, Implementation, and Design Notes

Notes on
invalid documents

Special
characters in URI attribute values

Non-ASCII
characters in URI attribute values

Ampersands
in URI attribute values

SGML
implementation notes

Line
breaks

Specifying
non-HTML data

Element
content

Attribute
values

SGML
features with limited support

Boolean
attributes

Marked
Sections

Processing
Instructions

Shorthand
markup

Notes on
helping search engines index your Web site

Search
robots

The
robots.txt file

Robots
and the META element

Notes on
tables

Design
rationale

Dynamic
reformatting

Incremental
display

Structure
and presentation

Row
and column groups

Accessibility

Recommended
Layout Algorithms

Fixed
Layout Algorithm

Autolayout
Algorithm

Notes on
forms

Incremental
display

Future
projects

Notes on
scripting

Reserved
syntax for future script macros

Current
Practice for Script Macros

Notes on
frames

Notes on
accessibility

Notes on
security

Security
issues for forms

References

Normative
references

Informative
references

Index of Elements

Index of Attributes

Index

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