HTML5 Attributes

HTML5 Attributes

As explained in previous chapter, elements may contain attributes that are used to set various properties of an element.

Some attributes are defined globally and can be used on any element, while others are defined for specific elements only. All attributes have a name and a value and look like as shown below in the example.

Following is the example of an HTML5 attributes which illustrates how to mark up a div element with an attribute named class using a value of "example":

<div class="example">...</div>
Attributes may only be specified within start tags and must never be used in end tags.

HTML5 attributes are case insensitive and may be written in all uppercase or mixed case, although the most common convention is to stick with lowercase.

Standard Attributes:

The attributes listed below are supported by almost all the HTML 5 tags.

Attribute
Options
Function
accesskey
User Defined
Specifies a keyboard shortcut to access an element.
align
right, left, center
Horizontally aligns tags
background
URL
Places an background image behind an element
bgcolor
numeric, hexidecimal, RGB values
Places a background color behind an element
class
User Defined
Classifies an element for use with Cascading Style Sheets.
contenteditable
true, false
Specifies if the user can edit the element's content or not.
contextmenu
Menu id
Specifies the context menu for an element.
data-XXXX
User Defined
Custom attributes. Authors of a HTML document can define their own attributes. Must start with "data-".
draggable
true,false, auto
Specifies whether or not a user is allowed to drag an element.
height
Numeric Value
Specifies the height of tables, images, or table cells.
hidden
hidden
Specifies whether element should be visible or not.
id
User Defined
Names an element for use with Cascading Style Sheets.
item
List of elements
Used to group elements.
itemprop
List of items
Used to group items.
spellcheck
true, false
Specifies if the element must have it's spelling or grammar checked.
style
CSS Style sheet
Specifies an inline style for an element.
subject
User define id
Specifies the element's corresponding item.
tabindex
Tab number
Specifies the tab order of an element.
title
User Defined
"Pop-up" title for your elements.
valign
top, middle, bottom
Vertically aligns tags within an HTML element.
width
Numeric Value
Specifies the width of tables, images, or table cells.
For a complete list of HTML5 Tags and related attributes please check reference to HTML5 Tags.

Custom Attributes:

A new feature being introduced in HTML 5 is the addition of custom data attributes.

A custom data attribute starts with data- and would be named based on your requirement. Following is the simple example:

<div class="example" data-subject="physics" data-level="complex">
...
</div>
The above will be perfectly valid HTML5 with two custom attributes called data-subject and data-level. You would be able to get the values of these attributes using JavaScript APIs or CSS in similar way as you get for standard attributes