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Attributes

  • All HTML elements can have attributes

  • Attributes provide additional information about an element

  • Attributes are always specified in the start tag

  • Attributes usually come in name/value pairs like: name="value"

 

The href Attribute

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

 

The src Attribute

HTML images are defined with the <img> tag.

The filename of the image source is specified in the src attribute

 

The width and height Attributes

Images in HTML have a set of size attributes, which specifies the width and height of the image. The image size is specified in pixels: width="500" means 500 pixels wide.

 

The alt Attribute

The alt attribute specifies an alternative text to be used when an image cannot be displayed.

The value of the attribute can be read by screen readers. This way, someone "listening" to the webpage, e.g. a blind person, can "hear" the element.

 

The style Attribute

The style attribute is used to specify the styling of an element, like color, font, size etc.

 

The lang Attribute

The language of the document can be declared in the <html> tag.

The language is declared with the lang attribute.

Declaring a language is important for accessibility applications (screen readers) and search engines. The first two letters specify the language (en). If there is a dialect, use two more letters (US).

 

The title Attribute

Here, a title attribute is added to the <p> element. The value of the title attribute will be displayed as a tooltip when you mouse over the paragraph.

 

 

We Suggest: Use Lowercase Attributes

The HTML5 standard does not require lowercase attribute names.

The title attribute can be written with uppercase or lowercase like title or TITLE.

Tech Ring recommends lowercase in HTML and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.

 

Chapter Summary

  • All HTML elements can have attributes

  • The title attribute provides additional "tool-tip" information

  • The href attribute provides address information for links

  • The width and height attributes provide size information for images

  • The alt attribute provides text for screen readers

  • At Tech Ring we always use lowercase attribute names

  • At Tech Ring we always quote attribute values with double quotes

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