HTML Tags and Attributes: A Comprehensive Reference Guide

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If you’ve used HTML in your web design projects or are just getting started, terminology like HTML tags and attributes in HTML is probably familiar. Let’s see how you use these HTML tags and attributes.

To effectively use HTML tags and attributes, you should follow some best practices, such as declaring a doctype, using significant title tags, utilizing descriptive meta tags, dividing the layout into major sections through divs, dividing content from presentation, minifying and unifying CSS, utilizing heading elements wisely, and more. Read on to learn more about how you may use these HTML tags and attributes. 

html tags and attributes

HTML elements and attributes are the foundation of online pages. HTML tags, surrounded in angle brackets, are there to specify the content of a web page. Whereas HTML attributes, inserted inside the element’s opening tag, offer additional information about the element. Before heading to know how you may use these HTML tags and attributes, let us read about what exactly HTML is.

Check this out: How To Send HTML Emails With Python 

What exactly is HTML?

HTML is an abbreviation for HyperText Markup Language. Programming languages are not the same as markup languages. Whereas programming languages allow us to manipulate data, markup languages govern how items appear on a webpage.

Web developers use it to organize, structure, and display the content on a web page. Continue reading to discover more about HTML, including how HTML5 increased its usefulness and the various vocations that employ it, such as inserting images, adding bullet points in HTML, embedding a YouTube video in HTML, and so much more!

Visit: HTML Tutorial

Read also: How Many HTML Tags Are There: Full List

How does HTML work?

HTML is there in files with the .htm or.html extension. A website may store hundreds or thousands of HTML files in multiple locations.

When you access a website, its server delivers HTML files to your browser. The HTML in the files is read and displayed by your browser. Some online applications do not employ static HTML but produce it in response to specified server activities.

We may also include other sorts of information, including CSS and JavaScript files, photos, and videos, to enhance the functionality of a web page, including optimization for opening HTML files on iPhone.

CSS enables us to add aesthetic elements, such as colors, to a website, and JavaScript allows interaction. These three languages, when combined, provide the cornerstone of web development. Now let us see what tags and attributes in HTML are.

What is an HTML Tag?

HTML tags are what specify where an HTML element begins and finishes. The element’s name usually follows an initial bracket and, lastly, a closing bracket and can be used to add different functionalities like embedding links,

See also: HTML Tags — List Of All HTML Tags With Examples.

Usually, an element is enclosed in a start and end tag. However, this is only true for some aspects.

html_tags

You can classify a tag into numerous categories in HTML. The first is the begin tag, which includes two opposing angle brackets.

Here are several examples

  • <title>
  • <p>
  • <b>

The other is the closing tag. It features angle brackets, which are comparable to the start tag. However, following the first angle bracket, there is a forward slash. The following examples of end tags correlate to the start tags mentioned above.

  • </title>
  • </p>
  • </b>

In certain circumstances, the tags may provide additional information. This is common with the opening tags. They may have an additional property, such as height, width, or CSS class name.

Consider this case:

<p class='info'>
img src="smiley.gif" alt="Smiley face" height="42" width="42">
<INPUT TYPE = "checkbox">

See also : Discover The Countless HTML Tags: A Comprehensive Guide

What is an HTML Attribute?

To put it simply, an HTML attribute is what alters an HTML element. It is in the form of distinct words inserted within the opening tag, which have power over the next element’s behavior.

html_attributes

Every tag is there in two components. The first is generally the attribute’s name, while the second is its value. An equals symbol (=) is commonly used to divide the two. Attributes are there within the start tag of the element that requires alteration.

Double or single quotations can surround the attribute value, and quoting may not be essential in some circumstances where specific characters exist. It is important to note that the standards for other languages, even the sister language, XHTML, may differ. This is what is an attribute in HTML.

However, experts consider unquoted attribute values to be dangerous. Similarly, not all characteristics require values. An is map property, which alters the image element, is a nice example.

An attribute’s overall structure is as follows:

<element attribute="value">element content</element>

Let’s have a look at the many forms of HTML characteristics.

The first is the necessary characteristics. Specific element types require them to perform as intended, as the name implies.

The optional characteristics are the following type. Their function is to modify an element’s default functionality.

Standard attributes, on the other hand, can handle several element types.

Last, event properties allow element types to express scripts that will execute under particular conditions.

One, two, or several elements utilize some necessary and optional properties. Those used by two or more elements will likely alter the individual elements differently, although sharing the same name.

See also: How To Display Current Time In HTML | 4 Easy Ways.

Examples of various HTML attributes

<input type = "text" name="email" size=15 value="type name here">
<td align=right>
<a href="http://www.cnn.com"> cnn </a>
<button onclick="document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = Date()">The time is?</button>

So these were the HTML tags, and attributes list with examples. Also, the common characteristics are class, context menu, data, hidden, id, lang, style, and title. So this was all about how to use these HTML tags and attributes.

FAQs

How do I use HTML tags?

To use HTML tags, you need to include them in your HTML document using the appropriate syntax. For example, to create a heading, you can use the h1 tag:

What are HTML attributes?

HTML attributes are additional information that can be added to HTML tags to modify their behavior or appearance. They are placed within an element's opening tag and separated by spaces.

How do I use HTML attributes?

To use HTML attributes, you need to add them to the opening tag of an HTML element using the appropriate syntax. For example, to add a class to a div element, you can use the class attribute as follows:

What is the difference between block-level and inline-level elements?

Block-level elements are HTML tags that create a new line and fill the entire width of their container, while inline-level elements are HTML tags that do not create a new line and only take up as much space as necessary. Some common examples of block-level elements are div, p, and h1, while common examples of inline-level elements are span, a, and img.

What is the role of the HTML head element?

The HTML head element contains meta-information about the HTML document not displayed on the web page. This includes the title of the document, links to external CSS files, and scripts for JavaScript and other client-side languages.

Conclusion

The preceding discussion has established a parallel line between HTML elements, HTML tags, and HTML attributes. It’s noteworthy that tags and attributes are included within an element. The components tell the browser what to display, while the attributes instruct how to act.

Tags indicate the beginning and end of an element. Some components, mainly the ending tags, may not require them. Furthermore, the properties are only seen within the beginning tags. We hope you now understand ” how you may use these HTML tags and attributes.”

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