Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Deprecated Attributes

A large number of attributes are deprecated in HTML 4.0, primarily due to the preference given to style sheets over direct content formatting. Browsers will continue to honor these deprecated attributes for a long time to come, but if you eventually design content exclusively for browsers that are HTML 4.0 compatible, you should use that project as a starting point for weaning yourself from these deprecated attributes. Table 7.4 lists all the deprecated attributes in HTML 4.0, plus the affected elements and suggested replacement syntax. In some instances, you will see a deprecated attribute associated with a new element (like the deprecated ALIGN attribute of the new IFRAME element). This is not a trick. You can still use the “old” attribute with a new element for the sake of authoring-style compatibility.

Table 7-4. Deprecated Attributes in HTML 4.0

Attribute	Elements	Supplanted By
ALIGN	CAPTION, APPLET, IFRAME, IMG, INPUT, OBJECT, LEGEND, TABLE, HR, DIV, H1-H6, P	text-align and vertical-align style attributes
ALINK	BODY	A:active {color:}
ALT	APPLET	OBJECT element TITLE attribute
ARCHIVE	APPLET	OBJECT element ARCHIVE attribute
BACKGROUND	BODY	background style attribute
BGCOLOR	BODY, TABLE, TD, TH, TR	background-color style attribute
BORDER	IMG, OBJECT	border-width style attributes
CLEAR	BR	clear style attribute
CODE	APPLET	OBJECT element CLASSID attribute
CODEBASE	APPLET	OBJECT element CODEBASE attribute
COLOR