A definition list is a list of terms and corresponding definitions. Definition lists are typically formatted with the term flush-left and the definition, formatted paragraph style, indented after the term.

Example of use:

<DL>
<DT>&lt;PRE&gt;<DD>Allows for the presentation of preformatted text.
<DT>&lt;P&gt;<DD>This is used to define paragraph blocks.
</DL>

Would render as:

<PRE>

Allows for the presentation of preformatted text

<P>

This is used to define paragraph blocks

If the <DT> term does not fit in the <DT> column (one third of the display area), it may be extended across the page with the <DD> section moved to the next line, or it may be wrapped onto successive lines of the left hand column.

The opening list element must be <DL> and must be immediately followed by the first term (<DT>).

The definition list type can take the COMPACT attribute, which suggests that a compact rendering be used, because the list items are small and/or the entire list is large.

Unless you provide the COMPACT attribute, the HTML user agent may leave white space between successive <DT>, <DD> pairs. The COMPACT attribute may also reduce the width of the left-hand (<DT>) column.

<DL COMPACT>
<DT>&lt;PRE&gt;<DD>Allows for the presentation of preformatted text.
<DT>&lt;P&gt;<DD>This is used to define paragraph blocks.
</DL>

TITLE="informational ToolTip"
The Internet Explorer 4.0 (and above) specific TITLE attribute is used for informational purposes. If present, the value of the TITLE attribute is presented as a ToolTip when the users mouse hovers over the <DL> section. Note that <DT> and <DD> also support use of the TITLE attribute. The ToolTip presented to the user will be that set in the <DT> or <DD> element. If they don't have a TITLE attribute, that set for the main <DL> element will be used. For example:

<DL TITLE="A definition list">
<DT TITLE="A definition term">&lt;PRE&gt;<DD TITLE="Definition data">Allows for the presentation of preformatted text.
<DT>&lt;P&gt;<DD>This is used to define paragraph blocks.
</DL>

As you can see below, when the mouse hovers over the first <DT> or <DD> elements, their TITLE properties are presented, but hovering the mouse over the latter elements, presents the TITLE ToolTip given in the main <DL> element.

<PRE>

Allows for the presentation of preformatted text.

<P>

This is used to define paragraph blocks.

LANG="language setting"
The LANG attribute can be used to specify what language the <DL> (or <DT> or <DD> elements) is using. It accepts any valid ISO standard language abbreviation (for example "en" for English, "de" for German etc.) For more details, see the Document Localisation section for more details.

LANGUAGE="Scripting language"
The LANGUAGE attribute can be used to expressly specify which scripting language Internet Explorer 4.0 uses to interpret any scripting information used in the <DL> (or <DT> or <DD> elements) element. It can accept values of vbscript, vbs, javascript or jscript. The first two specify the scripting language as Visual Basic Script, the latter two specify it as using Javascript (the default scripting language used if no LANGUAGE attribute is set.

CLASS="Style Sheet class name"
The CLASS attribute is used to specify the <DL> (or <DT> or <DD> elements) as using a particular style sheet class. See the Style Sheets topic for details.

STYLE="In line style setting"
As well as using previously defined style sheet settings, the <DL> (or <DT> or <DD>) element can have in-line stylings attached to it. See the Style Sheets topic for details.

ID="Unique element identifier"
The ID attribute can be used to either reference a unique style sheet identifier, or to provide a unique name for the <DL> (or <DT> or <DD>) element for scripting purposes. Any <DL> (or <DT> or <DD>) element with an ID attribute can be directly manipulated in script by referencing its ID attribute, rather than working through the All collection to determine the element. See the Scripting introduction topic for more information.

Every <DL> (or <DT> or <DD>) element in a document is an object that can be manipulated through scripting. Note that scripting of the <DL>, <DT> and <DD> elements/objects is only supported by Internet Explorer 4.0 in its Dynamic HTML object model. Netscape does not support direct scripting of the <DL>, <DT> or <DD> element at all.

<DL...> (<DT> and <DD>) Properties
The <DL...> elements support all of the standard Dynamic HTML properties (i.e. className, document, id, innerHTML, innerText, isTextEdit, lang, language, offsetHeight, offsetLeft, offsetParent, offsetTop, offsetWidth, outerHTML, outerText, parentElement, parentTextEdit, sourceIndex, style, tagName and title). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML properties topics.
The <DL> element also support the compact property, which reflects its COMPACT attribute setting (see above).

<DL...> (<DT> and <DD>) Methods
The <DL...> elements support all of the standard Dynamic HTML methods (i.e. click, contains, getAttribute, insertAdjacentHTML, insertAdjacentText, removeAttribute, scrollIntoView and setAttribute). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML Methods topics.

<DL...> (<DT> and <DD>) Events
The <DL...> elements support all of the standard Dynamic HTML events (i.e. onclick, ondblclick, ondragstart, onfilterchange, onhelp, onkeydown, onkeypress, onkeyup, onmousedown, onmousemove, onmouseout, onmouseover, onmouseup and onselectstart). Details of these can be found in the standard Dynamic HTML events topics.

© 1995-1998, Stephen Le Hunte