Required Elements | Sams Teach Yourself HTML in 10 Minutes (4th Edition)

HTML relies on several elements to define the document as well as to provide information that is used by the browser or search engine.

Tip

Several common attributes used for structure, internationalization, and events are abbreviated as core, i18n, and events in the following quick reference sections. The description for each of these abbreviations can be found later in the "Common Attributes and Events" section.

`<body>...</body>`

Usage	Contains the document's content.
Attributes	`core`, `i18n`, `events`.
	`onload="..."` Intrinsic event triggered when the document loads.
	`onunload="..."` Intrinsic event triggered when the document unloads.
Notes	There can be only one `<body>`, and it must follow the `<head>`. The `<body>` element can be replaced by a `<frameset>` element.

`<!DOCTYPE>`

Usage	Version information appears on the first line of an HTML document and is an SGML declaration rather than an element.
Attributes	`html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">` Used for documents following the Strict XHTML requirements.
	`html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">` Used for documents following the XHTML requirements, but also including some deprecated elements.
	`html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN`" "`http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd">` Used for framed documents.

`<head>...</head>`

Usage	This is the document header and contains other elements that provide information to users and search engines.
Attributes	`i18n`.
Attributes	`profile="..."` URL specifying the location of `meta` data.
Notes	In general, there can be only one `<head>` per document. It must follow the opening `<html>` tag and precede the `<body>`. The `<head>` must include a `<title>`.

`<html>...</html>`

Usage	The `html` element contains the entire document.
Attributes	`i18n`.

`<meta />`

Usage	Provides information about the document.
Attributes	`i18n`.
	`http-equiv="..."` HTTP response header name.
	`name="..."` Name of the `meta` information.
	`content="..."` Content of the `meta` information.
	-`scheme="..."` Assigns a scheme to interpret the `meta` data.

`<title>...</title>`

Usage	This is the name you give your Web page. The `<title>` element is located in the `<head>` element and is displayed in the browser window title bar.
Attributes	`i18n`.