HTML
Living Standard — Last Updated 18 August 2026
Living Standard — Last Updated 18 August 2026
body elementarticle elementsection elementnav elementaside elementh1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6
elementshgroup elementheader elementfooter elementaddress elementIntroduction_to_HTML/Document_and_website_structure#HTML_for_structuring_content
Support in all current engines.
body elementSupport in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
html element.body element's start tag can be omitted
if the element is empty, or if the first thing inside the body element is not
ASCII whitespace or a comment, except if the
first thing inside the body element is a meta, noscript,
link, script, style, or template element.
body element's end tag can be omitted if the
body element is not immediately followed by a comment.onafterprintonbeforeprintonbeforeunloadonhashchangeonlanguagechangeonmessageonmessageerroronofflineononlineonpageswaponpagehideonpagerevealonpageshowonpopstateonrejectionhandledonstorageonunhandledrejectiononunload[Exposed =Window ]
interface HTMLBodyElement : HTMLElement {
[HTMLConstructor ] constructor ();
// also has obsolete members
};
HTMLBodyElement includes WindowEventHandlers ;The body element represents the contents of the document.
In conforming documents, there is only one body element. The document.body IDL attribute provides scripts with easy access to
a document's body element.
Some DOM operations (for example, parts of the drag and drop model)
are defined in terms of "the body element". This refers to a particular element in
the DOM, as per the definition of the term, and not any arbitrary body element.
The body element exposes as event handler content attributes a number
of the event handlers of the Window object. It also mirrors their
event handler IDL attributes.
The event handlers of the Window object named by the
Window-reflecting body element event handler set, exposed on the
body element, replace the generic event handlers with the same names
normally supported by HTML elements.
Thus, for example, a bubbling error event
dispatched on a child of the body element of a Document would first
trigger the onerror event handler content
attributes of that element, then that of the root html element, and only
then would it trigger the onerror event handler content attribute on the
body element. This is because the event would bubble from the target, to the
body, to the html, to the Document, to the
Window, and the event handler on the
body is watching the Window not the body. A regular event
listener attached to the body using addEventListener(),
however, would be run when the event bubbled through the body and not when it reaches
the Window object.
This page updates an indicator to show whether or not the user is online:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
< html lang = "en" >
< head >
< title > Online or offline?</ title >
< script >
function update( online) {
document. getElementById( 'status' ). textContent =
online ? 'Online' : 'Offline' ;
}
</ script >
</ head >
< body ononline = "update(true)"
onoffline = "update(false)"
onload = "update(navigator.onLine)" >
< p > You are: < span id = "status" > (Unknown)</ span ></ p >
</ body >
</ html > article elementSupport in all current engines.
HTMLElement.The article element represents a complete, or self-contained,
composition in a document, page, application, or site and that is, in principle, independently
distributable or reusable, e.g. in syndication. This could be a forum post, a magazine or
newspaper article, a blog entry, a user-submitted comment, an interactive widget or gadget, or any
other independent item of content.
When article elements are nested, the inner article elements
represent articles that are in principle related to the contents of the outer article. For
instance, a blog entry on a site that accepts user-submitted comments could represent the comments
as article elements nested within the article element for the blog
entry.
Author information associated with an article element (q.v. the
address element) does not apply to nested article elements.
When used specifically with content to be redistributed in syndication, the
article element is similar in purpose to the entry element in
Atom. [ATOM]
The schema.org microdata vocabulary can be used to provide the publication date
for an article element, using one of the CreativeWork subtypes.
When the main content of the page (i.e. excluding footers, headers, navigation blocks, and
sidebars) is all one single self-contained composition, that content may be marked with an
article, but it is technically redundant in that case (since it's self-evident that
the page is a single composition, as it is a single document).
This example shows a blog post using the article element, with some schema.org
annotations:
< article itemscope itemtype = "http://schema.org/BlogPosting" >
< header >
< h2 itemprop = "headline" > The Very First Rule of Life</ h2 >
< p >< time itemprop = "datePublished" datetime = "2009-10-09" > 3 days ago</ time ></ p >
< link itemprop = "url" href = "?comments=0" >
</ header >
< p > If there's a microphone anywhere near you, assume it's hot and
sending whatever you're saying to the world. Seriously.</ p >
< p > ...</ p >
< footer >
< a itemprop = "discussionUrl" href = "?comments=1" > Show comments...</ a >
</ footer >
</ article > Here is that same blog post, but showing some of the comments:
< article itemscope itemtype = "http://schema.org/BlogPosting" >
< header >
< h2 itemprop = "headline" > The Very First Rule of Life</ h2 >
< p >< time itemprop = "datePublished" datetime = "2009-10-09" > 3 days ago</ time ></ p >
< link itemprop = "url" href = "?comments=0" >
</ header >
< p > If there's a microphone anywhere near you, assume it's hot and
sending whatever you're saying to the world. Seriously.</ p >
< p > ...</ p >
< section >
< h1 > Comments</ h1 >
< article itemprop = "comment" itemscope itemtype = "http://schema.org/Comment" id = "c1" >
< link itemprop = "url" href = "#c1" >
< footer >
< p > Posted by: < span itemprop = "creator" itemscope itemtype = "http://schema.org/Person" >
< span itemprop = "name" > George Washington</ span >
</ span ></ p >
< p >< time itemprop = "dateCreated" datetime = "2009-10-10" > 15 minutes ago</ time ></ p >
</ footer >
< p > Yeah! Especially when talking about your lobbyist friends!</ p >
</ article >
< article itemprop = "comment" itemscope itemtype = "http://schema.org/Comment" id = "c2" >
< link itemprop = "url" href = "#c2" >
< footer >
< p > Posted by: < span itemprop = "creator" itemscope itemtype = "http://schema.org/Person" >
< span itemprop = "name" > George Hammond</ span >
</ span ></ p >
< p >< time itemprop = "dateCreated" datetime = "2009-10-10" > 5 minutes ago</ time ></ p >
</ footer >
< p > Hey, you have the same first name as me.</ p >
</ article >
</ section >
</ article > Notice the use of footer to give the information for each comment (such as who
wrote it and when): the footer element can appear at the start of its
section when appropriate, such as in this case. (Using header in this case wouldn't
be wrong either; it's mostly a matter of authoring preference.)
In this example, article elements are used to host widgets on a portal page. The
widgets are implemented as customized built-in
elements in order to get specific styling and scripted behavior.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
< html lang = en >
< title > eHome Portal</ title >
< script src = "/scripts/widgets.js" ></ script >
< link rel = stylesheet href = "/styles/main.css" >
< article is = "stock-widget" >
< h2 > Stocks</ h2 >
< table >
< thead > < tr > < th > Stock < th > Value < th > Delta
< tbody > < template > < tr > < td > < td > < td > </ template >
</ table >
< p > < input type = button value = "Refresh" onclick = "this.parentElement.refresh()" >
</ article >
< article is = "news-widget" >
< h2 > News</ h2 >
< ul >
< template >
< li >
< p >< img > < strong ></ strong >
< p >
</ template >
</ ul >
< p > < input type = button value = "Refresh" onclick = "this.parentElement.refresh()" >
</ article > section elementSupport in all current engines.
HTMLElement.The section element represents a generic section of a document or
application. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of content, typically with a
heading.
Examples of sections would be chapters, the various tabbed pages in a tabbed dialog box, or the numbered sections of a thesis. A web site's home page could be split into sections for an introduction, news items, and contact information.
Authors are encouraged to use the article element instead of the
section element when it would make sense to syndicate the contents of the
element.
The section element is not a generic
container element. When an element is needed only for styling purposes or as a convenience for
scripting, authors are encouraged to use the div element instead. A general rule is
that the section element is appropriate only if the element's contents would be
listed explicitly in the document's outline.
In the following example, we see an article (part of a larger web page) about apples, containing two short sections.
< article >
< hgroup >
< h2 > Apples</ h2 >
< p > Tasty, delicious fruit!</ p >
</ hgroup >
< p > The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree.</ p >
< section >
< h3 > Red Delicious</ h3 >
< p > These bright red apples are the most common found in many
supermarkets.</ p >
</ section >
< section >
< h3 > Granny Smith</ h3 >
< p > These juicy, green apples make a great filling for
apple pies.</ p >
</ section >
</ article > Here is a graduation programme with two sections, one for the list of people graduating, and one for the description of the ceremony. (The markup in this example features an uncommon style sometimes used to minimize the amount of inter-element whitespace.)
<!DOCTYPE Html>
< Html Lang = En
>< Head
>< Title
> Graduation Ceremony Summer 2022</ Title
></ Head
>< Body
>< H1
> Graduation</ H1
>< Section
>< H2
> Ceremony</ H2
>< P
> Opening Procession</ P
>< P
> Speech by Valedictorian</ P
>< P
> Speech by Class President</ P
>< P
> Presentation of Diplomas</ P
>< P
> Closing Speech by Headmaster</ P
></ Section
>< Section
>< H2
> Graduates</ H2
>< Ul
>< Li
> Molly Carpenter</ Li
>< Li
> Anastasia Luccio</ Li
>< Li
> Ebenezar McCoy</ Li
>< Li
> Karrin Murphy</ Li
>< Li
> Thomas Raith</ Li
>< Li
> Susan Rodriguez</ Li
></ Ul
></ Section
></ Body
></ Html > In this example, a book author has marked up some sections as chapters and some as appendices, and uses CSS to style the headers in these two classes of section differently.
< style >
section { border : double medium ; margin : 2 em ; }
section . chapter h2 { font : 2 em Roboto , Helvetica Neue , sans-serif ; }
section . appendix h2 { font : small-caps 2 em Roboto , Helvetica Neue , sans-serif ; }
</ style >
<