Attributes

We have looked at HTML tags and seen how Enhanced HTML can provide help while typing.

However, a tag on its own is unlikely to provide sufficient instructions to the browser to achieve your desired effect. So how to provide further control?

The answer lies with the ATTRIBUTES which can be applied to the tag - each tag has its own list of attributes, and you will need to learn some of the basic ones.

Example

One of the most common tags is the <A> tag, but entered on its own it has no meaning.
Adding extra details inside the opening tag, sepearated by a space from the tag itself, we can make the <A> clickable, and as a result jump to another web page.

The additional detail in this case is the HREF attribute, and using it will change the appearance of the tag into <A href="nextpage.htm">Click me</A>

So an attribute is an extra instruction added into the main opening tag.

Adding attributes with Enhanced HTML

The auto-type feature is further expanded with attributes. We already saw that starting to type an HTML tag with Enhanced HTML would display a whole tag, even if only the beginning one or two letters had been entered.
Try this again - type in < then A and press the tab key to select the A tag... you should then see a list of attributes drop down to the right of the cursor - one of these, usually the most popular attribute, will already be highlighted and can be chosen by once again pressing the tab key - or work up and down the list with the arrow keys and choose the attribute with the tab key.
Many attributes require their value to be enclosed in inverted commas, and Enhanced HTML will start the opening inverted comma for you - once you have typed in the value, then don't forget to place a closing inverted comma at the end, or the browser will become confused.

There are no real strict rules about whether to use inverted commas or not - our advice is do use them, at least when the value is numerical or contains a percentage sign.