HTML BasicsStanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources
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Every HTML document has two parts, a head and a
body. The head contains
information about the document (metainformation), and the
body the content of the document itself. Nothing from the
<head> appears directly in the document as it is
presented to the reader. Rather, the browsing software uses information
from the <head> to find out about the document, so
that it can know how best to present it, and in order to offer services
specific to the document.
There is only one required element
<title>, which must appear
once, and only once.
There are a number of other elements that can be included in the
<head>, but they are not--with one exception--in use
in SUL/AIR. These additional elements describe--to the browsing
software--the document's relationship to other documents (or to people,
software services, etc.). Other elements in the
<code> are meant to be used to encode information
useful for indexing, cataloging, etc. As the conventions for use of
these elements become standardized and as software is developed to make
use of the information, we can expect to see them come into wider use.
For more information about these elements, see the Technical
Reference Guide to the HTML 2.0 Document Type Definition.
The one exception mentioned above, is that SUL/AIR authors are encouraged (but not required) to include a single line like the following:
<link rev="made" href="mailto:YOURADDRESS@YOURHOST.stanford.edu">
which some browsers can use to allow the reader to send a comment to you by email.