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.