HTML Cheat Sheet

This cheat sheet - or HTML code quick reference - lists the common HTML tags and their attributes, grouped into relevant sections in an easy-to-read format.

What is html? What are tags? - Perhaps check out where to start or what is html first :-)

Basic HTML Structure Help Help | Top Top
<html>
 <head>
  <title>website title</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  content of website ...
 </body>
</html>
Common Tags for Blogs Help Help | Top Top
<h?> heading </h?>Heading (h1 for largest to h6 for smallest)
<p> paragraph </p>Paragraph of Text
<b> bold </b>Make text between tags bold
<i> italic </i>Make text between tags italic
<a href="url"> link name </a>Create a link to another page or website
<div> ... </div>Divide up page content into sections, and applying styles
<img src="filename.jpg"> Show an image
<ul> <li> list </li> </ul>Unordered, bullet-point list
<br> Line Break (force a new line)
<span style="color:red"> red </span> Use CSS style to change text colour
Text Formatting Help Help | Top Top
<h?> ... </h?>Heading (?= 1 for largest to 6 for smallest, eg h1)
<b> ... </b>Bold Text
<i> ... </i>Italic Text
<u> ... </u>Underline Text
<strike> ... </strike>Strikeout
<sup> ... </sup>Superscript - Smaller text placed below normal text
<sub> ... </sub>Subscript - Smaller text placed below normal text
<small> ... </small>Small - Fineprint size text
<tt> ... </tt>Typewriter Text
<pre> ... </pre>Pre-formatted Text
<blockquote> ... </blockquote>Text Block Quote
<strong> ... </strong>Strong - Shown as Bold in most browsers
<em> ... </em>Emphasis - Shown as Italics in most browsers
<font> ... </font>Font tag obsolete, use CSS. (*)
Section Divisions Help Help | Top Top
<div> ... </div>Division or Section of Page Content
<span> ... </span>Section of text within other content
<p> ... </p>Paragraph of Text
<br> Line Break
<hr> Basic Horizontal Line
<hr> Tag Attributes: 
size="?"Line Thickness in pixels
width="?"Line Width in pixels
width="??%"Line Width as a percentage
color="#??????" Line Colour (*)
align="?" Horizontal Alignment: left, center, right (*)
noshadeNo 3D cut-out
<nobr> ... </nobr> Line Break
Images Help Help | Top Top
<img src="url" alt="text"> Basic Image
<img> Tag Attributes: 
src="url"URL or filename of image (required!)
alt="text"Alternate Text (required!)
align="?"Image alignment within surrounding text (*)
width="??"Image width (in pixels or %)
height="??"Image height (in pixels or %)
border="??"Border thickness (in pixels) (*)
vspace="??"Space above and below image (in pixels) (*)
hspace="??"Space on either side of image (in pixels) (*)
Linking Tags Help Help | Top Top
<a href="url"> link text </a>Basic Link
<a> Tag Attributes: 
href="url" Location (url) of page to link to.
name="??" Name of link (name of anchor, or name of bookmark)
target="?" Link target location: _self, _blank, _top, _parent.
href="url#bookmark" Link to a bookmark (defined with name attribute).
href="mailto:email" Link which initiates an email (dependant on user's email client).
Lists Help Help | Top Top
<ol> ... </ol>Ordered List
<ul> ... </ul>Un-ordered List
<li> ... </li>List Item (within ordered or unordered)
<ol type="?"> Ordered list type: A, a, I, i, 1
<ol start="??"> Ordered list starting value
<ul type="?"> Unordered list bullet type: disc, circle, square
<li value="??"> List Item Value (changes current and subsequent items)
<li type="??"> List Item Type (changes only current item)
<dl> ... </dl>Definition List
<dt> ... </dt>Term or phrase being defined
<dd> ... </dd>Detailed Definition of term
Tables Help Help | Top Top
<table> ... </table>Define a Table
<table> Tag Attributes: 
border="?" Thickness of outside border
bordercolor="#??????" Border Colour
cellspacing="?" Space between cells (pixels)
cellpadding="?" Space between cell wall and content
align="??" Horizontal Alignment: left, center, right (*)
bgcolor="#??????" Background Colour (*)
width="??" Table Width (pixels or %) (*)
height="??" Table Height (pixels or %) (*)
<tr> ... </tr>Table Row within table
<th> ... </th>Header Cell within table row
<td> ... </td>Table Cell within table row
<td> Tag Attributes: 
colspan="?" Number of columns the cell spans across (cell merge)
rowspan="?" Number of row a cell spans across (cell merge)
width="??" Cell Width (pixels or %) (*)
height="??" Cell Height (pixels or %) (*)
bgcolor="#??????" Background Colour (*)
align="??" Horizontal Alignment: left, center, right (*)
valign="??" Vertical Alignment: top, middle, bottom (*)
nowrap Force no line breaks in a particular cell
Frames Help Help | Top Top
<frameset> ... </frameset>Define the set of Frames
<frameset> Tag Attributes: 
rows="??,??, ..." Define row sizes & number of rows (size in pixels or %)
cols="??,??, ..." Define column sizes & number of columns (size in pixels or %)
noresize="noresize" User cannot resize any frames in frameset
<frame> ... </frame>Define a frame within the frameset
<frame> Tag Attributes: 
src="url" Location of HTML File for a frame
name="***" Unique name of frame window
marginwidth="?" Horizontal margin spacing inside frame (pixels)
marginheight="?" Vertical margin spacing inside frame (pixels)
noresize="noresize" Declare all frameset sizes as fixed
scrolling="***" Can the user scroll inside the frame: yes, no, auto
frameborder="?" Frame Border: (1=yes, 2=no)
bordercolor="#??????" Border Colour (*)
<noframes> ... </noframes>Unframed content (for browsers not supporting frames)
Forms Help Help | Top Top
<form> ... </form>Form input group decleration
<form> Tag Attributes: 
action="url" URL of Form Script
method="***" Method of Form: get, post
enctype="***" For File Upload: enctype="multipart/form-data"
<input> ... </input>Input field within form
<input> Tag Attributes: 
type="***" Input Field Type: text, password, checkbox, submit etc.
name="***" Form Field Name (for form processing script)
value="***" Value of Input Field
size="***" Field Size
maxlength="?" Maximum Length of Input Field Data
checked Mark selected field in radio button group or checkbox
<select> ... </select>Select options from drop down list
<select> Tag Attributes: 
name="***" Drop Down Combo-Box Name (for form processing script)
size="?" Number of selectable options
multiple Allow multiple selections
<option> ... </option>Option (item) within drop down list
<option> Tag Attributes: 
value="***" Option Value
selected Set option as default selected option
<textarea> ... </textarea>Large area for text input
<textarea> Tag Attributes: 
name="***" Text Area Name (for form processing script)
rows="?" Number of rows of text shown
cols="?" Number of columns (characters per rows)
wrap="***" Word Wrapping: off, hard, soft
Special Characters Help Help | Top Top
&lt;< - Less-Than Symbol
&gt;> - Greater-Than Symbol
&amp;& - Ampersand, or 'and' sign
&quot;" - Quotation Mark
&copy;© - Copyright Symbol
&trade; - Trademark Symbol
&nbsp;  - A space (non-breaking space)
&#??;ISO 8859-1 character - replace ?? with the iso code
Miscellaneous Tags Help Help | Top Top
<!-- ... -->Comment within HTML source code
<!DOCTYPE html ... >Document Type Definition (wiki)
<meta> ... </meta>META information tag
<meta> Tag Attributes: 
name="***"Meta name: description, keywords, author
http-equiv="***"HTTP Equivalent Info: title, etc.
content="***"Information content
<link>LINK content relationship tag
<link> Tag Attributes: 
rel="***"Type of forward relationship
http="url"Location (URL) of object or file being linked
type="***"Type of object or file, eg: text/css
title="***"Link title (optional)
Body Background & Colours Help Help | Top Top
<body> Tag Attributes: 
background="url"Background Image (*)
bgcolor="#??????" Background Colour (*)
text="#??????" Document Text Colour (*)
link="#??????" Link Colour (*)
vlink="#??????" Visited Link Colour (*)
alink="#??????" Active Link Colour (*)
bgproperties="fixed" Background Properties - "Fixed" = non-scrolling watermark (*)
leftmargin="?" Side Margin Size in Pixels (Internet Explorer) (*)
topmargin="?" Top Margin Size in Pixels (Internet Explorer) (*)

(*) Important Note:

Tags marked with (*) should still work, but have been superseded by Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which is now the recommended way to change the font, colour, spacing, border or alignment of HTML elements.

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