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Proprietary HTML Tags

or, How Really Big Companies Can be a Little Too Clever

Note: This list was cribbed from Web Design in a Nutshell by Jennifer Niederst, published by O'Reilly. I can make an unqualified recommendation that you get this book.

This page outlines the tags that are supported by only one or the other of the major browsers. It is best to avoid these tags unless their use won't affect the display of your page. The tags are defined in the following manner:

<tagname> attribute=value: Description of tag and/or attribute.

Microsoft Internet Explorer Proprietary Tags

The following tags and attributes are supported only by Internet Explorer. Tags marked with an asterisk (*) indicate the tag has been adopted by the HTML 4.0 Specification, but as of this writing, is not yet supported by Netscape Navigator.

<basefont> color=color face=font face: Sets the color and/or font of the entire document when placed in the <head> or for subsequent text when placed in the flow of the body text.

<bgsound>

Inserts an audio file that plays in the background.

<body> bgproperties=value: Determines whether background image scrolls with the background.

<body> leftmargin=n rightmargin=n: Sets the margin between the browser window and the contents of the page.

<caption> valign=position: Sets vertical alignment of table caption

<col> *: Indicates a column within a column group

<colgroup> *: Groups table columns

<comment>: Inserts a comment in HTML source that does not display in the browser. (same as )

<form> target=name: Specifies a target window or frame for the output of a form

<frameset> framespacing=n: Sets the amount of space between frames

<iframe> *: Creates a floating frame

<img> dynsrc=url controlsloop=n start=action: Uses the image tag to place video or audio clips

<isindex>: Provides URL of the program that will perform the search

<marquee>: Places scrolling marquee text on the page

<table> bordercolor=color bordercolordark=color bordercolorlight=color: Sets colors for 3-D table borders in the <table>, <td>, <th>, and <tr> tags

<table> frame=value: Controls the display of the outer borders of a table in the <table> tag

<tbody> *: Indicates table body rows

<tfoot> *: Indicates table footer rows

<thead> *: Indicates table header rows

Netscape Navigator Proprietary Tags

The following tags are supported only by Netscape Navigator.

<blink>: Causes text to blink on and off

<ilayer>: Inline layer; allows you to offeset content from its natural position on the page

<keygen>: Facilitates generation of key material and submission of the public key as part of an HTML form (for privacy and encryption)

<layer>: Creates layers so that elements can be placed on top of each other (useful with DHTML)

<multicol>: Produces a multicolumn format

<nolayer>: alternative text for layers; browsers that do not support <layer> and <ilayer> will display what's between these tags

<server>: Specifies a server-side JavaScript application

<spacer>: Holds a specified amount of empty space (used for alignment of elements on the page and to hold table cells open to specific widths)