How to use the Compendium of HTML Elements
Note: The Compendium Logo is the link to the site map from all pages.
Link to Site Map

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The Compendium of HTML Elements is organized into 4 levels.


Site Map
The top level is the Site Map. Get to it by clicking on any animated logo from anywhere in the Compendium. It is a listing of all HTML tags known to the authors. It is organized alphabetically by tag name. Click on the letter of the alphabet at the top or bottom of the screen and you will go to the list of tags for that letter. The logo on the left will return you to the alphabet listing at the top of the page. Click on the tag name and you will be presented with a detail page for that tag.
Tag Page
The tag page organizes the tag and its supporting elements into three categories (the tag, the attribute and the argument). The tag name is followed by the type of HTML tag (container or empty). Below that is the Cascading Style Sheet type (block or in-line). The compatibility chart then follows.
The colour coding for the compatibility chart is listed here.
Compatibility Chart:
w3c icon + 2.0 3.0 3.2 4.0
Netscape icon 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0  
MSIE icon 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0  
Mosaic icon 1.0 2.0      
Opera 1.0 2.1      
WebTV 0.9        
Netscape icon this is the logo for the Netscape browser. To the right of the logo will be the major version number when the tag was recognized by the browser. It is the similar for the other browsers.
w3c icon = World Wide Web Consortium
Netscape icon = Netscape
MSIE icon = Microsoft Internet Explorer Microsoft changes their sites frequently so it is impossible to give you a fixed link.
Mosaic icon= Mosaic
Opera = Opera
WebTV = WebTV.
When the background is white, there is insufficient information available to declare if the tag is supported or not. In some instances, this information will be updated as soon as the author can find archived documentation.
  The green background (with the version number superimposed) indicates that this specific version of the browser supports this tag, attribute or argument.
  The pink background indicates that a tag, attribute or argument has been deprecated".
  The red background indicates that a tag has been officially declared "obsolete" and might not be supported by browsers in the future.
The page is then organized in indents from the left margin. Leftmost is the attributes that are documented to work with that tag. In some cases a compatibility chart may be used for an attribute. To the right of each attribute is an appropriate description. Some attribute names that are underlined are links to specific detail pages. The rightmost indent is for the argument that may be applicable to the superior attribute. Some arguments are self-explanatory or are explained in the attribute. Again some arguments may have links to dedicated detail pages.
Attribute and Argument Pages
Many of the attributes are links to detail pages for the attributes. In some cases, historical explanations are provided so readers can be aware of their varied life. Arguments are not included on the attribute pages but may have detail pages of their own.
Detail Pages
Throughout The Compendium, on many pages, are additional links, These are internal or external to The Compendium. These pages could be in the form of a working example, a detail page or an external site that covers a specific discipline in more detail.

          In all, The Compendium is a relatively complete listing of the Hypertext Markup Language. I trust you will find it useful.

          Ron Woodall