Home > HTML > Head and Body Elements printer version

HTML - Head and Body Elements

The head element holds information about the document; the body element holds the actual content that makes up the document.

The Head Element

The Head element can enclose a number of elements of which the most important are listed below. (HTML 4.01 version is shown - if XHTML is used then elements without closing tags should end with a space then forward slash)

The title element. This takes the form
<title="The title of my document">
It has no closing tag. This element is often used by search engines and may show on search results.
The link element. This defines the relationship between this document and other documents. It has no closing tag. This element is used to link to external style sheets and takes the form
<link rel="stylesheet" href="my_stylesheet.css" type="text/css">
The script element. This is used to place script, such as JavaScript, within a document. It has a closing tag.
The meta element. This is used to provide all sorts of information, including redirects and expiry dates, to web servers and search engines about the document. It has a closing tag. It's also used to provide a description or keywords that may be used by search engines. It takes the form
<meta name="description" content="A description of my web page">

HTML 4.01 transitional Head Example

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title="The title of my document">
<meta name="description" content="A description of my web page">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="my_stylesheet.css" type="text/css">
</head>

The Body Element

The body element can have a number of attributes such as bgcolor (the background colour of the page), text (the text colour, link colour, etc.), however these have been depreciated in HTML 4.01 since this is better achieved using style sheets. In fact it's so much better that you shouldn't even consider using body attributes and for this reason they're not covered here.

It's within the body that all text and elements are enclosed that will show on the page when the browser displays the document.

When writing or adding to an HTML document, it can be difficult to find the bit you want so comments can be useful. A comment takes the form below.



If you wish to remove a section of a document without deleted it then you can comment out the section by placing  at the end. The browser will ignore everything between these tags.

Previous - Creating a Document Next - Formatting Text

Basics Creating a Document Head and Body Elements Formatting Text Creating Lists Embedding Images URLs Explained Linking to Documents Creating Tables Forms Form Basics Input and Textarea Select Lists Frames Framesets The Frame Element Nested Framesets Targetting Frames Inline Frames		Tips and Tricks Meta Tags Transition Effects HTML Generators Create a Document Create a List Create a Table

Basics Implementing CSS CSS Syntax Pseudo Classes/Elements CSS Classes CSS Properties Font Properties Color and Background Text Properties Border Properties Margins and Padding Size and Position		Tips and Tricks Menu Buttons Special Effects

Basics Running a Script Variables Expressions and Operators Objects.Properties.Methods The Date Object Strings Regular Expressions Defining RegExp Patterns Branches and Conditions Loops Arrays Array Basics Array Methods Sorting Arrays User-Defined Functions Cookies Windows Frames		Tips and Tricks Image Replacement Using Includes Form Validation Debugging

Basics Creating a Script Running a Script Variables Expressions and Operators Strings Strings Basics Strings and Substrings Replacing Substrings Regular Expressions Branches and Conditions Loops Arrays Array Basics Array Functions Sorting Arrays User-Defined Functions Include and Require Uploading Files File Functions Session Variables		Tips and Tricks Page Templates Form Reply Scripts Form Validation JavaScript to PHP