If you’re coding with a strict doctype, you definitely don’t want to use any deprecated attributes or elements. So, what are those deprecated elements and attributes that you shouldn’t use? See below:
Deprecated Elements
| Name | Description | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| applet | Java applet | |
| basefont | base font size | font-size: 100%; |
| center | shorthand for DIV align=center | text-align: center; |
| dir | directory list | |
| font | local change to font | font-family: arial; font-size: 0.8em; |
| isindex | single line prompt | |
| menu | menu list | (making a come back in HTML5) |
| s | strike-through text style | text-decoration: line-through; |
| strike | strike-through text | text-decoration: line-through; |
| u | underlined text style | text-decoration: underline; |
Deprecated Attributes
| Attribute | Deprecated in these elements | CSS (or HTML) Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| align | caption, img, input, object, legend, table, hr, div, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p | CSS attribute: text-align |
| alink, link, vlink | body | CSS selectors: a, a:link, a:visited, a:hover, a:active, a:visited:hover
CSS attribute: color: |
| background | body | CSS attribute: background-image: |
| bgcolor | table, tr, td, th, body | CSS attribute: background-color: or background: |
| border | img, object | CSS attribute: border: |
| clear | br | CSS attribute: clear: left | right | both | none |
| compact | dl, ol, ul | CSS attribute: line-height, min-height or height: with overflow: set. |
| height | td, th | CSS attribute: line-height for cell content; don’t use tables for layout |
| hspace | img, object | CSS attribute: padding |
| language | script | HTML attribute: type
HTML attribute value: |
| name | img, a, applet, form, frame, iframe, map | HTML attribute: id |
| noshade | hr | |
| nowrap | td, th | CSS attribute: white-space: |
| size | hr | CSS attribute: width: or margin: |
| start | ol | Anyone know? Please tell me. (making a comeback in HTML5) |
| target | a | Anyone know? Please tell me. See http://krijnhoetmer.nl/stuff/html/strict-doctype-target/ (making a comeback in HTML5) |
| text | body | CSS attribute: color |
| type | li, ol, ul | CSS attribute: list-style-type |
| value | li | Anyone know? Please tell me. |
| version | html | HTML Markup: use a DTD |
| vspace | img, object | CSS attribute: padding: or margin: |
| width | hr, td, th, pre | CSS attribute: width: |
Instead of target=”_blank” for links, the best way is to use JavaScript. This is one effective method:
<a href=”http://example.org/” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;”>example.org</a>
If by some chance the user has JavaScript disabled, the link will still work (though in the same window).
I was surprise by many of the deprecated elements and attributes, mainly the attributes.
Dan,
You should actually put the onClick in a JavaScript and not make it inline. This is most commonly used for external links.
Here is an article
http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/11/20/open-external-links-as-blank-targets-via-unobtrusive-javascript/
Patrick
Thanks, it’s useful.
Iframe and target are not deprecated in HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0
but both are invalid in strict doctypes. Unlike every other invalid element/ attribute.
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/elements.html
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/attributes.html
Do you know why? I don’t see any logic in this.
Also, text/javascript is deprecated.
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4329.txt
It’s just that IE is too idiotic to support application/ecmascript
or application/javascript. Which, again, doesn’t seem to make any sense.
As for a target alternative there is no HTML/CSS way to do it.
But this works
New-Window Links in a Standards-Compliant World
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/standards-compliant-world/
An image can be centered horizontally simply with a block. But how to do that just as easily with CSS? Of course I don’t want to use margins and absolute lengths. The same goes for a table, where also the align attribute is deprecated. Am I just that stupid?
Google Chrome already seems to ignore the center tags around an image and places the image left of the screen.
Strike through text might be better displayed in a
tag, as this might give more semantic meaning than purely using CSS.Sorry, the post above should read as follows:
Strike through text might be better displayed in a [del] html tag, as this might give more semantic meaning than purely using CSS.
You ve forget many deprecated attribute, there’s a list there http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/index/attributes.html
interresting stuff
@sebounet – Thanks for the link. I checked it out. I got all of them here, just in a summarized format.