XHTML™ 2.0

W3C Working Draft 6 May 2003

This version:: http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xhtml2-20030506
Latest version:: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2
Previous version:: http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xhtml2-20030131
Diff-marked version:: xhtml2-diff.html
Editors:: Jonny Axelsson, Opera Software; Beth Epperson, Netscape/AOL; Masayasu Ishikawa, W3C; Shane McCarron, Applied Testing and Technology; Ann Navarro, WebGeek, Inc.; Steven Pemberton, CWI (HTML Working Group Chair)

This document is also available in these non-normative formats: Single XHTML file, PostScript version, PDF version, ZIP archive, and Gzip'd TAR archive.

Copyright ©2003 W3C^® (MIT, ERCIM , Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark, document use and software licensing rules apply.

Abstract

XHTML 2 is a general purpose markup language designed for representing documents for a wide range of purposes across the World Wide Web. To this end it does not attempt to be all things to all people, supplying every possible markup idiom, but to supply a generally useful set of elements.

Status of This Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. The latest status of this document series is maintained at the W3C.

This document is the fifth public Working Draft of this specification. It should in no way be considered stable, and should not be normatively referenced for any purposes whatsoever. This version includes an early implementation of XHTML 2.0 in RELAX NG [RELAXNG], but does not include the implementations in DTD or XML Schema form. Those will be included in subsequent versions, once the content of this language stabilizes. This version also does not address the issues revolving around the use of [XLINK] by XHTML 2. Those issues are being worked independent of the evolution of this specification. Those issues should, of course, be resolved as quickly as possible, and the resolution will be reflected in a future draft. Finally, the working group has started to resolve many of the issues that have been submitted by the public. If your particular issue has not yet been addressed, please be patient - there are many issues, and some are more complex than others.

This document has been produced by the W3C HTML Working Group (members only) as part of the W3C HTML Activity. The goals of the HTML Working Group are discussed in the HTML Working Group charter.

Public discussion of XHTML takes place on www-html@w3.org (archive). To subscribe send an email to www-html-request@w3.org with the word subscribe in the subject line.

Please report errors in this document to www-html-editor@w3.org (archive).

At the time of publication, the Working Group believed there were no patent disclosures relevant to this specification. A current list of patent disclosures relevant to this specification may be found on the Working Group's patent disclosure page.

A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR.

Quick Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Terms and Definitions
3. Conformance Definition
4. The XHTML 2.0 Document Type
5. Module Definition Conventions
6. XHTML Attribute Collections
7. XHTML Structure Module
8. XHTML Block Text Module
9. XHTML Inline Text Module
10. XHTML Hypertext Module
11. XHTML List Module
12. XHTML Linking Module
13. XHTML Metainformation Module
14. XHTML Object Module
15. Ruby Module
16. XHTML Scripting Module
17. XHTML Style Attribute Module
18. XHTML Style Sheet Module
19. XHTML Tables Module
20. XForms Module
21. XML Events Module
A. Changes from XHTML 1.1
B. XHTML 2.0 RELAX NG Definition
C. XHTML RELAX NG Module Implementations
D. XHTML 2.0 Schema
E. XHTML Schema Module Implementations
F. XHTML 2.0 Document Type Definition
G. XHTML DTD Module Implementations
H. List of Elements
J. List of Attributes
I. Cross-reference Index
K. References
L. Acknowledgements

List of Issues

Full Table of Contents

1. Introduction
- 1.1. What is XHTML 2?
  - 1.1.1. Backwards compatibility
  - 1.1.2. XHTML2 and Presentation
  - 1.1.3. Design Aims
- 1.2. What are the XHTML 2 Modules?
2. Terms and Definitions
3. Conformance Definition
- 3.1. Document Conformance
  - 3.1.1. Strictly Conforming Documents
- 3.2. User Agent Conformance
4. The XHTML 2.0 Document Type
5. Module Definition Conventions
- 5.1. Module Structure
- 5.2. Abstract Module Definitions
- 5.3. Syntactic Conventions
- 5.4. Content Types
- 5.5. Attribute Types
6. XHTML Attribute Collections
- 6.1. Core Attribute Collection
- 6.2. I18N Attribute Collection
- 6.3. Bi-directional Text Collection
  - 6.3.1. Inheritance of text direction information
  - 6.3.2. The effect of style sheets on bidirectionality
- 6.4. Edit Collection
- 6.5. Hypertext Attribute Collection
- 6.6. Embedding Attribute Collection
- 6.7. Image Map Attribute Collection
- 6.8. Events
- 6.9. Style Attribute Collection
- 6.10. Common Attribute Collection
7. XHTML Structure Module
- 7.1. The html element
- 7.2. The head element
- 7.3. The title element
- 7.4. The body element
8. XHTML Block Text Module
- 8.1. The address element
- 8.2. The blockcode element
- 8.3. The blockquote element
- 8.4. The div element
- 8.5. The heading elements
- 8.6. The hr element
- 8.7. The p element
- 8.8. The pre element
- 8.9. The section element
9. XHTML Inline Text Module
- 9.1. The abbr element
- 9.2. The cite element
- 9.3. The code element
- 9.4. The dfn element
- 9.5. The em element
- 9.6. The kbd element
- 9.7. The l element
- 9.8. The quote element
- 9.9. The samp element
- 9.10. The span element
- 9.11. The strong element
- 9.12. The sub element
- 9.13. The sup element
- 9.14. The var element
10. XHTML Hypertext Module
- 10.1. The a element
11. XHTML List Module
- 11.1. Definition lists: the dl, dt, and dd elements
- 11.2. The nl element
- 11.3. The ol, and ul elements
- 11.4. The li element
- 11.5. The label element
12. XHTML Linking Module
- 12.1. The link element
  - 12.1.1. Forward and reverse links
  - 12.1.2. Links and external style sheets
  - 12.1.3. Links and search engines
13. XHTML Metainformation Module
- 13.1. The meta element
  - 13.1.1. meta and search engines
  - 13.1.2. meta and RDF
  - 13.1.3. meta data profiles
14. XHTML Object Module
- 14.1. The object element
  - 14.1.1. Defining terminology
  - 14.1.2. Basic Information for Object Handlers
  - 14.1.3. Rules for processing objects
- 14.2. The param element
  - 14.2.1. Referencing object data
  - 14.2.2. Object element declarations and instantiations
- 14.3. The standby element
15. Ruby Module
16. XHTML Scripting Module
- 16.1. The noscript element
- 16.2. The script element
  - 16.2.1. Rules for processing scripts
  - 16.2.2. Specifying the scripting language
  - 16.2.3. Declaration of a scripting language
  - 16.2.4. Dynamic modification of documents
17. XHTML Style Attribute Module
18. XHTML Style Sheet Module
- 18.1. The style element
  - 18.1.1. External style sheets
  - 18.1.2. Preferred and alternate style sheets
  - 18.1.3. Specifying external style sheets
19. XHTML Tables Module
- 19.1. The caption element
  - 19.1.1. Caption Clipping
- 19.2. The col and colgroup elements
  - 19.2.1. Calculating the number of columns in a table
- 19.3. The summary element
- 19.4. The table element
  - 19.4.1. Visual Rendering
  - 19.4.2. Table directionality
  - 19.4.3. Table rendering by non-visual user agents
  - 19.4.4. Sample table
- 19.5. The tbody element
- 19.6. The td and th elements
  - 19.6.1. Cells that span several rows or columns
- 19.7. The thead and tfoot elements
- 19.8. The tr element
20. XForms Module
21. XML Events Module
A. Changes from XHTML 1.1
B. XHTML 2.0 RELAX NG Definition
- - B.0.1. RELAX NG XHTML 2.0 Driver
C. XHTML RELAX NG Module Implementations
- C.1. XHTML Module Implementations
  - C.1.1. Attribute Collections
  - C.1.2. Structure
  - C.1.3. Block Text
  - C.1.4. Inline Text
  - C.1.5. Hypertext
  - C.1.6. List
  - C.1.7. Link
  - C.1.8. Metainformation
  - C.1.9. Object
  - C.1.10. Scripting
  - C.1.11. Style Attribute
  - C.1.12. Style Sheet
  - C.1.13. Tables
- C.2. XHTML RELAX NG Support Modules
  - C.2.1. Datatypes
  - C.2.2. Events
  - C.2.3. Param
  - C.2.4. Caption
- C.3. RELAX NG External Modules
  - C.3.1. Ruby
  - C.3.2. Ruby Driver for Full Ruby Markup
  - C.3.3. XML Events
D. XHTML 2.0 Schema
E. XHTML Schema Module Implementations
F. XHTML 2.0 Document Type Definition
G. XHTML DTD Module Implementations
- G.1. XHTML Modular Framework
  - G.1.1. XHTML Base Architecture
  - G.1.2. XHTML Notations
  - G.1.3. XHTML Datatypes
  - G.1.4. XHTML Common Attribute Definitions
  - G.1.5. XHTML Qualified Names
  - G.1.6. XHTML Character Entities
- G.2. XHTML Module Implementations
  - G.2.1. Structure
  - G.2.2. Block Text
  - G.2.3. Inline Text
  - G.2.4. Hypertext
  - G.2.5. List
  - G.2.6. Link
  - G.2.7. Metainformation
  - G.2.8. Object
  - G.2.9. Scripting
  - G.2.10. Style Attribute
  - G.2.11. Style Sheet
  - G.2.12. Tables
- G.3. XHTML DTD Support Modules
  - G.3.1. Param
H. List of Elements
J. List of Attributes
I. Cross-reference Index
K. References
- K.1. Normative References
- K.2. Informative References
L. Acknowledgements