HTML ol tag

Note: If you don't know what an element/tag is and/or how you must use it we recommend you to read our HTML tags and attributes tutorial that you can find in our HTML tutorials section.

Description

The HTML ol element inserts an ordered list, which is a block level element consisting of a sequence of numbered items (HTML li element).

These lists can be nested, i.e., contain or be contained by other lists. In fact, the versatility is such that they can be nested with unordered lists too (HTML ul element).

For the sake of code properness, sub-lists must be inserted inside a list item (HTML li element) and not directly as content of the parent list.

Note that the attributes "type", "start" and "compact" of this element have been deprecated in HTML 4.01 for their presentational nature. A good replacement can be achieved using style sheets.

Examples

Attributes

id (name)

The "id" attribute assigns an identifier to the associated element. This identifier must be unique in the document and can be used to refer to that element in other instances (e.g., from client-side scripts).

class (cdata)

The "class" attribute assigns a class name (or a list of class names separated by spaces) to the container element. It's used together with style sheets and tells the browser the class (or classes) to which the element is associated with.

A class gives presentational attributes to elements (read more at the Cascading Style Sheets tutorial).

style (style)

This attribute is used to define presentational attributes for the containing element, and its value should be composed by style sheets properties. Although, in some cases, it can become useful, a better practice is to place presentational attributes in external files, relating them to elements with the "class" attribute. This way you keep the semantic and presentational parts of your document separated.

You can find more information about presentational attributes at the Cascading Style Sheets tutorial.

title (text)

The purpose of this attribute is to provide a title for the element. Its value must be a short and accurate description of the element. Browsers usually render it as a "tool tip" when the user puts the mouse pointer over the element for a small period of time.

lang (langcode)

Specifies the language of an element's content. The default value in "unknown".

When writing XHTML 1.0 documents, the attribute used to specify the language of an elements is "xml:lang". For forward and backward compatibility both attributes can be used simultaneously like in the example below. Note, that in XHTML 1.1 the "lang" attribute has been completely replaced by "xml:lang" and its use is no longer valid.

dir

This attribute indicates the direction in which the texts of the element must be read. This includes content, attribute values and tables. It has two possible values that are case-insensitive:

• RTL: Right to left.
• LTR: Left to right.

type

This attribute has been deprecated in HTML 4.01. Therefore its use is no longer recommended.

Indicates how the list item marker should be represented in a list. Possible values are:

• 1: arabic numbers (1, 2, 3,...).
• a: lower alpha (a, b, c,...).
• A: upper alpha (A, B, C,...).
• i: lower roman (i, ii, iii,...).
• I: upper roman (I, II, III,...).

start (number)

This attribute has been deprecated in HTML 4.01. Therefore its use is no longer recommended.

Indicates the starting number for the list, i.e. the number of the first item in the list. Default value is "1".

compact

This attribute has been deprecated in HTML 4.01. Therefore its use is no longer recommended.

This boolean attribute indicates user agents to render the list in compact mode. Interpretations on the word "compact" is left to user agents.

Remember that in XHTML, boolean attributes must take their own names as value (e.g., attr_name="attr_name").

Events

• onclick
• ondblclick
• onmousedown
• onmouseup
• onmouseover
• onmousemove
• onmouseout
• onkeypress
• onkeydown
• onkeyup

See a complete list and information about events in HTML