3.2 HTML semantics

The primary purpose of HTML tags is to specify the structure of a web page.

Elements are either block-level or inline. A block-level element is like a paragraph; it is a container that can be filled with other elements. Most block-level elements can contain any other sort of element. An inline element is like a word within a paragraph; it is a small component that is arranged with other components inside a container. An inline element usually only contains text.

The content of an element may be other elements or plain text. There is a limit on which elements may be nested within other elements (see Section 3.3).

Almost all elements may have a class attribute, so that a CSS style specified in the head element can be associated with that element. Similarly, all elements may have an id attribute, which can be used to associate a CSS style. The value of all id attributes within a piece of HTML code must be unique.

All elements may also have a style attribute, which allows “inline” CSS rules to be specified within the element's opening tag.

Paul Murrell

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