HTML Cheat Sheet
Basic HTML Structure
<html>
<head>
<title>website title</title>
</head>
<body>
content of website ...
</body>
</html>
Common Tags for Blogs
<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
Use CSS style to change text colour
</span>
Text Formatting
Heading (?= 1 for largest to 6 for
<h?> ... </h?>
smallest, eg h1)
<b> ... </b> Bold Text
<i> ... </i> Italic Text
<u> ... </u> Underline Text
<strike> ... </strike> Strikeout
Superscript - Smaller text placed below
<sup> ... </sup>
normal text
Subscript - Smaller text placed below
<sub> ... </sub>
normal text
<small> ... </small> Small - Fineprint size text
<tt> ... </tt> Typewriter Text
<pre> ... </pre> Pre-formatted Text
<blockquote> ... </blockquote> Text Block Quote
Strong - Shown as Bold in most
<strong> ... </strong>
browsers
Emphasis - Shown as Italics in most
<em> ... </em>
browsers
<font> ... </font> Font tag obsolete, use CSS. (*)
Section Divisions
<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 (*)
noshade No 3D cut-out
<nobr> ... </nobr> Line Break
Images
<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
<a href="url"> link text
Basic Link
</a>
<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
<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
List Item Value (changes current and
<li value="??">
subsequent items)
List Item Type (changes only current
<li type="??">
item)
<dl> ... </dl> Definition List
<dt> ... </dt> Term or phrase being defined
<dd> ... </dd> Detailed Definition of term
Tables
<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
<frameset> ... </frameset> Define the set of Frames
<frameset> Tag Attributes:
Define row sizes & number of rows (size in
rows="??,??, ..."
pixels or %)
Define column sizes & number of columns (size
cols="??,??, ..."
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 (*)
Unframed content (for browsers not supporting
<noframes> ... </noframes>
frames)
Forms
<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
< < - Less-Than Symbol
> > - Greater-Than Symbol
& & - Ampersand, or 'and' sign
" " - Quotation Mark
© © - Copyright Symbol
™ ™ - Trademark Symbol
- A space (non-breaking space)
&#??; ISO 8859-1 character - replace ?? with the iso code
Miscellaneous Tags
<!-- ... --> Comment within HTML source code
<!DOCTYPE html ...
Document Type Definition
>
<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
<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 (*)
Background Properties - "Fixed" = non-scrolling
bgproperties="fixed"
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.
