HTML, the complete-ish guide

About this document
Comprehensive listing
Documented features
Obsolete features
Undocumented features
Incomplete information
Character map
Internal images
Other Useful Documents
Index

About this Document

The purpose of this document is to provide a comprehensive listing of html tags understood by Xmosaic, in one place. And to be used to write HTML documents.

This is based on a selective reverse engineer of Mosaic2.1 and an amalgamation of the HTML help documents, No guarantees about accuracy of information is given as I havent figured everything out yet.

Examples are not always provided. In case of confusion please look at the source of this document.

This version is posted with the colour gifs stripped out as I didnt want to uuencode and post them.

Ive done a few non-standard things to get images in headings, and I know it's not a particularly elegant method.

There is still a lot to do, if there are any errors please let me know as soon as possible.

Distributed under the GNU copyleft (any version of your choice) Please don't distribute modified copies as the information is still being assembled

HTML Codes

Document structure

base, title, link, head, body, nextid.

Documented

a, address, blockquote, b, cite, code, dir, dfn, dl, dd, dt, e, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, img, i, kbd, li, menu, ol, p, pre, sample, s, tt, ul, var

Obsolete

listing, plaintext, xmp

UnDocumented

br, comments, form, hr, input, isindex, option, select, strike, textarea,

Documented Features

<title>...<title>
sets the title of the document
<h1>...</h1>

Header level 1
<h2>...</h2>

Header level 2
<h3>...</h3>

Header level 3
<h4>...</h4>

Header level 4
<h5>...</h5>

Header level 5
<h6>...</h6>

Header level 6
<a>...</a>
- <A name=name>...</A>.
  Sets a tag in your document which can be href'd back to. Click here to go to the end of the document
- <A href=name>link</a>
  makes a hypertext link to the named item.
  - <A href=name>...</a>
    This makes a link to the named file
```
     link to a text file
```
  - <A href=#name>...</a>
    A hash means that the link is to a tag in this document.
```
     link to the top of this file
```
  - <A href=news:newsgroup>...</a>
    connects to the news-server taken from the environment variable NNTP_SERVERand reads the newsgroup.
```
     link to www newsgroup
     link to all newsgroups
```
  - <A href=wais:name>...</a>
    connects to a wais server.
```
     link to novell wais
```
  - <A href=ftp:name>...</a>
    connects to a ftp server.
```
     link to ftp at Novell Germany
```
  - <A href=gopher:name>...</a>
    connects to a gopher server.
```
     link to novell gopher
```
  - <A href=http:name>...</a>
    with http: the file is somewhere else on the net.
<p>
A new paragraph
starts here
<address>...</address>
seems to just set italic text, but is meant to show the author of the document
mydocument / me / me@me.com

unnumbered lists

<ul>   start of list
<li>   list element 1
<ul>   start of list 2
</ul>  end of list 2
<li>   list element 2
<li>   list element 3
<li>   list element 4
</ul>  end of list

which looks like

list element 1.1
- list element 2.1
list element 1.2
list element 1.3
list element 1.4

<ol>

numbered lists

<ol>  start of list
<li>  item
<ol>  start of list 2
</ol> end of list 2
<li>  item
<li>  item
<li>  item
</ol> end of list

which looks like

item
1. item
item
item
item

<li>
List items (as used above)
<menu>
This is a list of smaller paragraphs.
```
  <menu [compact]>

  <li>item
  <li>item
  <li>item
  </menu>
```
This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1, This is menu item 1.
This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2, This is menu item 2,
This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3, This is menu item 3,
<dfn>...</dfn>
a text style used for definitions: eg: "definitions".
<dir [compact]>
This should display the items going accross the page.
```
  <dir>

  <li>item<li>item
  <li>item
  </dir>
```
item1
item2
item3
item4
item5
<dl [compact]>...</dl>
Description list
```
  <DL>
  <DT> description 1
  <DD> blah blah ....
  <DT> description 2
  <DD> waffle waffle ....
  </DL>
```
is formatted to

description 1
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
description 2
waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle
<dt>
Description list item title as used above
<dd>
Description list item details as used above

         preformatted       text,   retains spaces and
	       line feeds

an optional parameter width=n can be given.

<img>
<IMG SRC="image.gif">
displays an . By default the bottom of the image is aligned with the bottom of the text, This can be changed using the parameter align
<IMG SRC="image.gif" align=top>
displays the with the top aligned.
<IMG SRC="image.gif" align=middle>
displays the with the middle aligned.
if the image doesnt exist this picture: will appear
<IMG SRC="image.gif" alt="text">
will display the text in a text environment.
<tt>...</tt>
sets fixed width font
<b>...</b>
sets bold font
<i>...</i>
sets italic font
<em>...</em>
sets emphasised font
<strong>...</strong>
sets stronger font
<code>...</code>
this sets the font to be fixed width, otherwise everything is the same
<samp>...</samp>
a sequence of literal characters eg: &%$*&&&(^_+_)(.
<kbd>
formats it as in manuals when users are asked to type things in. eg: help
<var>...</var>
indicates a variable name
<cite>...</cite>
cites the text in a predefined font. This font may be set up as being italic.
<blockquote>...</blockquote>
formats text like so

this is a block quote, this is a block quote,this is a block quote, this is a block quote, this is a block quote,this is a block quote, this is a block quote, this is a block quote,this is a block quote, this is a block quote, this is a block quote,this is a block quote,
See what I mean? it should leave white space before and after it.

Obsolete features.

<xmp>
<plaintext>
<listing>

Undocumented features.

These features are all poorly documented.

<base>
<! comment body >
Inserts a comment into the document. Must not contain any tags nested within it. Comments do not affect the flow of text.
<br>
breaks the line
and carries on to the next line.

Put together collections of

inputs    

textareas     

menus

<hr>
Places a horizontal line between the lines of text.
<input NAME=name [value=string] [Type =type] [SIZE=x,y] [checked] ALIGN=align>
Creates an input field in a form.
TYPE can be one of
- text
  *default* an input filed
- submit
  calls the action specified in the form.
- reset
  clears all the fields in the form.
- radio
  radio buttons. Input fields with the same NAME field can only have one active selection.
```
Plain input field
  <form>
    <input NAME="From">	            
  </form>

text areas
 SIZE 15,5 ALIGN=middle            

submission buttons
 Type="submit"			

reset button
 Type="reset"			

radio buttons
 Type=radio			
```
<isindex>
allows the user to search some file.
This is really a pre-defined form with a predefined Text Field. It would have been ice to be able to set the text to whatever you wanted though.
<option>
is used within <SELECT>.

This creates a pull-down menu containing Options in a form.


          Example                        Output
<form>
  <select NAME="direction">
    <OPTION SELECTED> North           
    <OPTION> East
    <OPTION> South
    <OPTION> West
  </select>
</form>

<strike>
It ~~strikes out~~ the selected text
<textarea>
This allows us to put a panel of text in a form
this is a text area, this is area, this is a text area, th a text area, this is a text

Incomplete information

This section details the areas I am unable to find more information about. any information will be gratefully received. Please send working examples me

Image maps
How are they created, and how is user input processsed?
forms
How is the information processed one a form has been completed?
isindex
Presumably this is a bit like the question on forms?
wais
does Mosaic support wais? how so?

character codes

&aacute .... á    &acirc  .... â    &aelig  .... æ    
&agrave .... à    &amp    .... &    &aring  .... å    
&atilde .... ã    &auml   .... ä    &ccedil .... ç    
&eacute .... é    &ecirc  .... ê    &egrave .... è    
&eth    .... ð    &euml   .... ë    &gt     .... >    
&iacute .... í    &icirc  .... î    &igrave .... ì    
&iuml   .... ï    &lt     .... <    &ntilde .... ñ    
&oacute .... ó    &ocirc  .... ô    &ograve .... ò    
&oslash .... ø    &otilde .... õ    &ouml   .... ö    
&quot   .... "    &szlig  .... ß    &thorn  .... þ    
&uacute .... ú    &ucirc  .... û    &ugrave .... ù    
&uuml   .... ü    &yacute .... ý    &yuml   .... ÿ

Internal images

 internal-gopher-binary     internal-gopher-index 
 internal-gopher-image      internal-gopher-menu
 internal-gopher-movie      internal-gopher-sound
 internal-gopher-text       internal-gopher-telnet
 internal-gopher-unknown

me

I can be contacted at the following places.

sunil@uel.co.uk
sunil@magnetic.demon.co.uk
sunil@uel.ukb.novell.com

Index

A B C D F H I L M O P S T W ?

                                                      A
     about the author
     text areas

                                                      B
     block quotes
     inserting a line-break

                                                      C
     special character codes
     inserting comments

                                                      D
     displaying images

                                                      F
     Forms
       - input fields           
       - text areas             
       - pull down menus        
       - processing             
     text formatting styles
       - address field          
       - bold face              
       - cited text             
       - source code            
       - definitions field      
       - emphasised text        
       - fixed width            
       - italic face            
       - user input style       
       - strong face            
       - struck out             
       - variable name          

                                                      H
     header levels
     horizontal lines

                                                      I
     image alignment
     displaying images
     searching indices
     other sources of information
     input
       - default fields         
       - text panel             
       - submit buttons         
       - reset buttons          
       - radio buttons          
     internal images
     image maps

                                                      L
     header levels
     horizontal lines
     inserting a line-break
     links
       - named tag in document  
       - local file             
       - file on a http server  
       - ftp server             
       - news server/group      
       - gopher server          
       - wais server            
     lists
       - accross the page       
       - of descriptions        
         - title         
         - elements      
       - list elements          
       - numbered               
       - not numbered           
       - of paragraphs          
     literal character strings

                                                      M
     image maps
     pull down menu

                                                      O
     obsolete features
       - XMP tag                
       - PLAINTEXT tag          
       - LISTING tag            

                                                      P
     form processing
     paragraphs
     preformatted text
     pull down menu
       - elements of            
     Purpose of document 

                                                      S
     searching indices
     other sources of information
     special character codes
     text formatting styles
       - address field          
       - bold face              
       - cited text             
       - source code            
       - definitions field      
       - emphasised text        
       - fixed width            
       - italic face            
       - user input style       
       - strong face            
       - struck out             
       - variable name          

                                                      T
     text areas
     Document title

                                                      U
     other sources of information

                                                      W
     connecting to wais servers

                                                      ?
     contributors welcome on the following
       - BASE tag               
       - processing FORMS

This is the end of the document

click here to go back to the backhere tag.