HTML <body> Element
The HTML <body>
tag is used for declaring the main content section of the HTML document. The <body>
tag is placed after the document's head (i.e. between the </head>
and the </html>
tags).
The basic tag is written like this <body>
</body>
, with the document's content inserted between the opening and closing tags. On any normal-sized HTML document, you'll usually see the opening tag (<body>
) near the top of the document and the closing tag (</body>
) near the bottom.
There can only be one <body>
element per HTML document.
Example
The following example shows how this element works.
Code
Result
Attributes
The <body>
element accepts the following attributes.
Local Attributes
The following attributes are defined in the <body>
element's specification.
The following elements are also listed further down this document under Event Handler Content Attributes
. These event handlers are only available for the <body>
element and the (now obsolete frameset
element).
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
onafterprint | afterprint event handler |
onbeforeprint | beforeprint event handler |
onbeforeunload | beforeunload event handler |
onhashchange | hashchange event handler. The hashchange event is fired when navigating to a session history entry whose URL differs from that of the previous one only in the fragment identifier. |
onmessage | message event handler. |
onoffline | offline event handler. |
ononline | online event handler. |
onpagehide | pagehide event handler. The pagehide event is fired when traversing from a session history entry. |
onpageshow | pageshow event handler. The pageshow event is fired when traversing to a session history entry. |
onpopstate | popstate event handler. The popstate event is fired when navigating to a session history entry that represents a state object. |
onstorage | storage event handler. |
onunload | unload event handler. |
Global Attributes
The <body>
element accepts the following global attributes. These attributes are standard across all HTML 5 elements.
Attribute | Description | ||||||||||||
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accesskey | Specifies a shortcut key that can be used to access this <body> element.
Possible values. [Any string of characters. This string of characters specifies the key/s the user needs to use in order to access the element.] |
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class | This is a document wide identifier. It is used to refer to a class that is specified in the style sheet. The value should match the name of the class you wish to use. | ||||||||||||
contenteditable | This attribute specifies whether the user can edit the content or not.
Possible values:
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contextmenu | The contextmenu attribute sets a context menu for an element. The value must be the ID of a menu element in the DOM. |
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dir | Specifies the direction of the text.
Possible values:
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draggable | Specifies whether the user is allowed to drag this <body> element or not.
Possible values:
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dropzone | The dropzone attribute specifies what should happen when the user "drops" an element (i.e. after dragging it) onto this <body> element.
Must be an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are ASCII case-insensitive. Possible values:
Note that this attribute must not have more than one of the three feedback values (copy, move, and link) specified. If none are specified, the copy value is implied. |
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hidden | Indicates that this particular This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either Possible values:
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id | The id attribute is a document wide identifier, which is used in conjunction with CSS and JavaScript. The value must match the name of the id you wish to use.
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itemid | The itemid provides a global identifier for an "item". This attribute is optional, however if it is provided, it must have a value that is a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
The |
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itemprop | This attribute provides one or more properties to one or more "items".
Although this attribute is optional, if used it must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are case-sensitive, representing the names of the name-value pairs that it adds. The attribute's value must have at least one token. Each token must be one of the following:
Also, |
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itemref | This attribute is used in conjunction with the |
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itemscope | HTML5 elements that have the itemscope attribute create a name-value pair called an "item". Elements with an itemscope attribute may also have an itemtype attribute specified, to give the item types of the item.
This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either Possible values:
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itemtype | This attribute provides an item type for elements containing the itemscope attribute. The attribute is optional but if it is specified, it must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are case-sensitive, each of which is a valid URL that is an absolute URL, and all of which are defined to use the same vocabulary. The attribute's value must have at least one token.
The |
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lang | Sets the language code to be used.
Possible values: [Must be a valid RFC 3066 language code, or an empty string.] |
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spellcheck | Specifies whether the element should have its spelling checked.
If this attribute is missing, the element will use the default behavior, possibly based on the parent's own |
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style | Specifies inline styles for this <body> element. This allows you to define the styles within the page, and within this <body> tag, as opposed to referring to styles defined elsewhere (such as an external style sheet). Although this can be useful for over-riding external styles, it is usually preferrable to use external styles in conjunction with the class attribute and/or the id attribute.
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tabindex | Helps determine the tabbing order for the element (for when the user uses the "tab" key on their keyboard to "tab" through the elements on the page in order to select an element).
Possible values: [Any valid integer. For example, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...etc] |
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title | Specifies a title to associate with this particular <body> element. Many browsers will display this when the cursor hovers over the element (similar to a "tool tip").
Possible values: [Any text to be displayed as a "tool tip".] |
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translate | Determines whether the element's attribute values and the values of its Text node children are to be translated when the page is localized, or whether to leave them unchanged.
The
If the |
Event Handlers
This element also accepts various event handlers. Event handlers are commonly used to extend the functionality of an HTML element.
For a list of event handlers that you can use with this element, see Event handlers on elements, Document objects, and Window objects at the W3C website.
More Information About the <body>
Element
Content Categories | Sectioning root. |
---|---|
Can be used | As the second element in an <html> element. |
Content model | Flow content. |
End Tag Required? |
|
DOM Interface | HTMLBodyElement |
Specifications for the <body>
Element
Here is the <body>
element defined in the various specifications:
- W3C (HTML5)
- WHATWG (HTML Living Standard)
- W3C HTML 4.01 Specification (previous version of HTML)