HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition

Addresses

Addresses are common elements in text documents, so there is a special tag that sets addresses apart from the rest of a document's text. While this may seem a bit extravagant—addresses have few formatting peculiarities that would require a special tag—it is yet another example of content, not format, being the primary focus of HTML and XHTML markup.

By defining text that constitutes an address, the author lets the browser format that text in a different manner and process that text in ways helpful to users. It also makes the content readily accessible to automated readers and extractors. For instance, an online directory might include addresses the browser collects into a separate document or table, or automated tools might extract addresses from a collection of documents to build a separate database of addresses.

The <address> Tag

The <address> tag and its required end tag (</address>) tell a browser that the enclosed text is a contact address, typically snail mail or email. The address may include other contact information, too. The browser may format the text in a different manner from the rest of the document text or use the address in some special way. You also have control over the display properties through the style and class attributes for the tag (see Chapter 8).

<address>

Function	Defines an address
Attributes	class, dir, id, lang, onClick, onDblClick, onKeyDown, onKeyPress, onKeyUp, onMouseDown, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onMouseOver, onMouseUp, style, title