XHTML Attributes

There are few XHTML/HTML attributes which are standard and associated to all the XHTML/HTML tags. These attributes are listed here with small description.

Core Attributes

Not valid in base, head, html, meta, param, script, style, and title elements.

Attribute	Value	Description
class	class_rule or style_rule	The class of the element
id	id_name	A unique id for the element
style	style_definition	An inline style definition
title	tooltip_text	A text to display in a mouse tip

Language Attributes

The lang attribute indicates the language being used for the enclosed content. The language is identified using the ISO standard language abbreviations, such as fr for French, en for English, and so on. RFC 1766 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1766.txt) describes these codes and their formats.

Not valid in base, br, frame, frameset, hr, iframe, param, and script elements.

Attribute	Value	Description
dir	ltr | rtl	Sets the text direction
lang	language_code	Sets the language code

Microsoft Proprietary Attributes

Microsoft introduced a number of new proprietary attributes with the Internet Explorer 4 and higher versions.

Attribute	Value	Description
accesskey	character	Sets a keyboard shortcut to access an element
language	string	This attribute specifies the scripting language to be used with an associated script bound to the element, typically through an event handler attribute. Possible values might include javascript, jscript, vbs, and vbscript.
tabindex	number	Sets the tab order of an element
contenteditable	boolean	Allows users to edit content rendered in Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater. Possible values are true or false.
disabled	boolean	Elements with the disabled attribute set may appear faded and will not respond to user input. Possible values are true or false.
hidefocus	on or off	This proprietary attribute, introduced with Internet Explorer 5.5, hides focus on an element's content. Focus must be applied to the element using the tabindex attribute.
unselectable	on or off	Used to prevent content displayed in Internet Explorer 5.5 from being selected.