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CSS2.1 Properties & Browser support
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CSS, JavaScript and XHTML Explained

Estelle Weyl’s Blog of quirks, random thoughts and funky finds discovered in day-to-day coding

 

XHTML Deprecated Elements and Attributes July 24, 2007

Filed under: Web Development — Estelle Weyl @ 10:31 am

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
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:
MIME type, ex. type=”text/javascript”

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.
target a Anyone know? Please tell me.
See http://krijnhoetmer.nl/stuff/html/strict-doctype-target/
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:
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5 Comments for this post

 
Dan Says:

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).

 
Guillermina Says:

I was surprise by many of the deprecated elements and attributes, mainly the attributes.

 
Patrick Says:

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

 
cid Says:

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/

 
Jan Eyking Says:

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.

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