HTML 4.01 Element Reference
By Lee Underwood
Return to HTML 4.01 element index page
Name: Document Type Definition
<!DOCTYPE>
Description: Tells the browser what version of HTML is being used.
Browser Compatibility: NN: 1.0+ / IE: 2.0+ / Opera: 4+
Code Example:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
Comments: Should be the first line in the HTML document. Failure to use the element may result in validation errors and page display problems.
XHTML Notes: The DOCTYPE element must appear in the upper/lowercase letters shown here, even in XHTML.
Created: March 15, 2005
URL: http://webreference.com/html/reference/specs/