HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition

General Form-Control Attributes

The many form-control tags contain common attributes that, like most other tags, generally serve to label, set up the display, extend the text language, and make the tag extensible programmatically.

The id and title Attributes

The id attribute, as for most other standard tags, lets you attach a unique string label to the form control and its contents for reference by programs (applets) and hyperlinks. This name is distinct from the name assigned to a control element with the name attribute. Names assigned with the id attribute are not passed to the server when the form is processed.

The title attribute is similar to id in that it uses a quote-enclosed string value to label the form control. However, it titles only the form segment; you cannot use its value in an applet reference or hyperlink. Browsers may use the title as pop-up help for the user or in nonvisual presentation of the form. [The id attribute, 4.1.1.4] [The title attribute, 4.1.1.5]

The event Attributes

Like most other elements, most of the form controls support a number of user mouse and keyboard event-related attributes that the HTML 4/XHTML-compliant browser recognizes and lets you specially process using JavaScript or a Java applet, for example. We describe the majority of these events in detail in Chapter 12.

The style, class, lang, and dir Attributes

The style attribute for the various form controls creates an inline style for the elements enclosed by the tag, overriding any other ...