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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
      "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
  <title>W3C XHTML2 Working Group Home Page</title>
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  content="HTML, HTML 4, HTML 4.01, HTML 4.0, XHTML, XHTML 1.0, XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic, Modularization of XHTML, XML Events, XHTML-Print, XHTML 2.0, HTML Activity, XHTML2 Working Group"
  />
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  content="This is W3C's home page for the XHTML2 Working Group." />
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<body>
<p class="banner"><span class="hide"><a href="#title">Skip to title</a>
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<p id="quick"><em>Quick links</em>: <span class="hide"><a href="#title">Skip to
title</a>,</span> <a title="HTML 4 Specification" href="../TR/html4">HTML
4</a>, XHTML <a
title="XHTMLâ?¢ 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language"
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href="../TR/xhtml11">1.1</a>, <a title="XHTMLâ?¢ Basic"
href="../TR/xhtml-basic">Basic</a>, <a title="Modularization of XHTMLâ?¢"
href="../TR/xhtml-modularization">M12N</a>, <a title="XHTML-Print"
href="../TR/xhtml-print">Print</a> (<abbr
title="Proposed Recommendation">PR</abbr>), <a title="XHTMLâ?¢ 2.0"
href="../TR/xhtml2">2.0</a> (<abbr title="Working Draft">WD</abbr>)</p>

<h1 id="title" class="title">XHTML2 Working Group Home Page</h1>

<div id="preface" class="preface">
<p>This was the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>'s home page
for the XHTML2 Working Group, which was <a
href="/2007/03/XHTML2-WG-charter">chartered</a> in March 2007 (see <a
href="/News/2007#item43">news</a>) until December 2010. Please also see the
home page for the <a href="/html/wg/">HTML Working Group</a>.</p>
</div>

<p id="navbar" class="navbar"><span class="hide"><a href="#main">Skip to main
content</a> |</span> <a href="#news">news</a>
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title="Previous versions of HTML">HTML 4.0/3.2/2.0</a> | <a id="historical"
title="Some early ideas for HTML" name="historical"
href="historical">historical</a> | <a id="patentpolicy"
href=" http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/32107/status">patent policy
status</a></p>

<p style="border: 1px solid red; padding: 0.5ex;text-align: center;">This
Working Group is now closed. For further ongoing work related to XHTML, see the
<a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/the-xhtml-syntax.html#the-xhtml-syntax">XHTML
syntax</a> section of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/">HTML5
specification</a>.</p>

<h2><a id="mission" name="mission">Mission of the XHTML2 Working Group</a></h2>

<p>The mission of the XHTML2 Working Group is to fulfill the promise of XML for
applying XHTML to a wide variety of platforms with proper attention paid to
internationalization, accessibility, device-independence, usability and
document structuring. The group will provide an essential piece for supporting
rich Web content that combines XHTML with other W3C work on areas such as math,
scalable vector graphics, synchronized multimedia, and forms, in cooperation
with other Working Groups.</p>

<div class="news">
<h2><a id="news" name="news">NEWS</a></h2>

<p class="hide">(<a href="#main">Skip to main content</a>)</p>

<p>2010-12-17: The XHTML2 Working Group is closed.</p>

<p>2010-12-17: <a
href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/2010/xhtml-m12n-relaxng-20101216/">XHTML
Modularization for RelaxNG</a> is out.</p>

<p>2009-07-02: XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to
Increase Resources on HTML 5. Today the Director announces that when the XHTML
2 Working Group charter expires as scheduled at the end of 2009, the charter
will not be renewed. By doing so, and by increasing resources in the HTML
Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate the progress of HTML 5 and clarify W3C's
position regarding the future of HTML.</p>

<p>2009-01-28: <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-xhtml-media-types-20090116/">XHTML Media
Types - Second Edition</a> published. Many people want to use XHTML to author
their Web pages, but are confused about the best ways to deliver those pages in
such a way that they will be processed correctly by various user agents. This
Note contains suggestions about how to format XHTML to ensure it is maximally
portable, and how to deliver XHTML to various user agents - even those that do
not yet support XHTML natively. This document is intended to be used by
document authors who want to use XHTML today, but want to be confident that
their XHTML content is going to work in the greatest number of environments. <a
href="http://www.w3.org/News/2009#item6">News item</a>. </p>

<p>2009-01-16: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/curie/">CURIE Syntax 1.0</a> is a
W3C Candidate Recommendation.This document defines a generic, abbreviated
syntax for expressing URIs. See the ongoing <a
href="2009/curie-impl-report.html">CURIE implementation report</a> for progress
during the CR phase. <a href="http://www.w3.org/News/2009#item4">News
item.</a></p>

<p>2008-10-16: <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-rdfa-syntax-20081014/">RDFa</a> is a
Recommendation. This specification allows publishers to express structured data
on the Web within XHTML. This allows tools to read it, enabling a new world of
user functionality, allowing users to transfer structured data between
applications and web sites, and allowing browsing applications to improve the
user experience. For those looking for an introduction to the use of RDFa and
some real-world examples, please consult the updated <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/NOTE-xhtml-rdfa-primer-20081014/">RDFa
Primer</a>.</p>

<p>2008-10-08: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization">XHTML
Modularization 1.1</a> is a W3C Recommendation. The main change in this version
is addition of support for XML Schema. The XHTML2 WG will now use this to add
schema support to its markup languages that use XHTML Modularization. <a
href="http://www.w3.org/News/2008#item168">News item.</a></p>

<p><span class="date">2008-09-04:</span> The <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/">Semantic Web Deployment Working Group</a>
and the <a href="">XHTML2 Working Group</a> have published the Proposed
Recommendation of <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/PR-rdfa-syntax-20080904/">RDFa in XHTML: Syntax
and Processing</a>. See also the <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/RDFa/implementation-report/">RDFa
Implementation Report</a>.</p>

<p><span class="date">2008-07-29:</span> <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xhtml-basic-20080729/">XHTML Basic 1.1</a>
is a recommendation. With this, there is now a full convergence in mobile
markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance
(OMA).</p>

<p><span class="date">2008-06-20:</span> The <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/">Semantic Web Deployment Working Group</a>
and the <a href="">XHTML2 Working Group</a> have published a Candidate
Recommendation of <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/CR-rdfa-syntax-20080620/">RDFa in XHTML: Syntax
and Processing</a>. Web documents contain significant amounts of structured
data, which is largely unavailable to tools and applications. When publishers
can express this data more completely, and when tools can read it, a new world
of user functionality becomes available, letting users transfer structured data
between applications and web sites, and allowing browsing applications to
improve the user experience. RDFa is a specification for attributes to be used
with languages such as HTML and XHTML to express structured data.</p>

<p><span class="date">2008-06-12:</span> The <a href="/MarkUp/">XHTML2 Working
Group</a> published two Proposed Recommendations today: <strong>XHTML
Modularization 1.1</strong> and <strong>XHTML Basic 1.1</strong>. The former
provides a means for subsetting and extending XHTML, a feature needed for
extending XHTML's reach onto emerging platforms. This specification is intended
for use by language designers as they construct new XHTML Family Markup
Languages. This second version of this specification includes several minor
updates to provide clarifications and address errors found in the first
version. It also provides an implementation using XML Schemas. This version of
XHTML Basic, which uses the Modularization approach, has been brought into
alignment with the widely deployed XHTML Mobile Profile from the Open Mobile
Alliance (OMA).</p>

<p><span class="date">2008-05-26:</span> The <a href="/MarkUp/">XHTML2 Working
Group</a> has released a Last Call Working Draft of <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-xhtml-access-20080526/">XHTML Access
Module</a>. This document is intended to help make XHTML-family markup
languages more effective at supporting the needs of the accessibility community
by providing a generic mechanism for defining the relationship between document
components and well-known accessibility taxonomies.</p>

<p><span class="date">2008-05-06:</span> The <a href="/MarkUp/">XHTML2 Working
Group</a> has released a Last Call Working Draft of <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-curie-20080506/">CURIE Syntax 1.0</a> that
defines a syntax for expressing URIs in a generic, abbreviated syntax.</p>

<p><span class="date">2008-04-07:</span> The XHTML2 Working Group has released
a second Last Call Working Draft of <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-xhtml-role-20080407/">XHTML Role Attribute
Module</a>. With the <code>role</code> attribute, authors can annotate XML
languages with machine-readable semantic information about the purpose of
elements. Use cases include accessibility, device adaptation, server-side
processing and complex data description. The attribute can be integrated into
any markup language based on <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization/">XHTML Modularization</a>.</p>

<p><span class="date">2008-01-07:</span> The <a href="/MarkUp/">XHTML2 Working
Group</a> has published the First Public Working Draft of <a
href="/MarkUp/2008/WD-xhtml-access-20080107/">XHTML Access Module</a>. This
document is intended to help make XHTML-family markup languages more effective
at supporting the needs of the accessibility community. It does so by providing
a generic mechanism for defining the relationship between document components
and well-known accessibility taxonomies.</p>

<p>(<a href="news">Past News</a>)</p>
</div>

<div id="main" class="main">
<h2><a id="whatis" name="whatis">What is HTML?</a></h2>

<p>HTML is the <em>lingua franca</em> for publishing hypertext on the World
Wide Web. It is a non-proprietary format based upon <abbr
title="Standard Generalized MarkUp Language">SGML</abbr>, and can be created
and processed by a wide range of tools, from simple plain text editors - you
type it in from scratch - to sophisticated <acronym
title="What You See Is What You Get">WYSIWYG</acronym> authoring tools. HTML
uses tags such as <code>&lt;h1&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;/h1&gt;</code> to
structure text into headings, paragraphs, lists, hypertext links etc. Here is a
<a href="Guide/">10-minute guide</a> for newcomers to HTML. W3C's statement of
direction for HTML is given on the <a href="Activity">HTML Activity
Statement</a>. See also the page on our work on the <a href="Forms/">next
generation of Web forms</a>, and the section on <a href="historical">Web
history</a>.</p>

<h2><a id="whatis-xhtml" name="whatis-xhtml">What is XHTML?</a></h2>

<p>The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML™) is a family of current
and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend HTML,
reformulated in <a href="../XML/">XML</a> rather than SGML. XHTML Family
document types are all XML-based, and ultimately are designed to work in
conjunction with XML-based user agents. XHTML is the successor of HTML, and a
<a href="#recommendations">series of specifications</a> has been developed for
XHTML. See also: <a href="2004/xhtml-faq">HTML and XHTML Frequently Answered
Questions</a></p>

<h2><a id="recommendations" name="recommendations">Recommendations</a></h2>

<p>W3C produces what are known as "<a
href="../2004/02/Process-20040205/tr#RecsW3C">Recommendations</a>". These are
specifications, developed by W3C working groups, and then reviewed by Members
of the Consortium. A W3C Recommendation indicates that consensus has been
reached among the Consortium Members that a specification is appropriate for
widespread use.</p>

<p>In general, XHTML specifications include implementations of their
requirements in various syntaxes (e.g., XML DTD, XML Schema, RelaxNG). These
implementations are normative, and are meant to be used either as building
blocks for new markup languages (e.g., XHTML Modularization) or as complete
markup language implementations (e.g., XHTML 1.1). </p>

<p>While a normative part of the W3C Recommendation in which they are
presented, these implementations are also code containing potential errors or
omissions. When such errors are discovered, it is sometimes important that they
be addressed very quickly to ensure that technologies relying on the
implementations work as expected (e.g., validators and content authoring
systems). The W3C process allows for the publication and frequent updating of
errata, but unfortunately this process does not enable implementations to be
quickly updated. As a result, the XHTML 2 Working Group has adopted the
following concerning the production and evolution of its implementations:</p>
<ul>
  <li>All implementations will adhere to the naming convention(s) and evolution
    rules as defined in XHTML Modularization. These names include both Formal
    Public Identifiers and System Identifiers. These conventions require that
    the System Identifier must include a revision number. This revision number
    is ONLY incremented when a revision is not backward compatible.</li>
  <li>Each applicable Recommendation will include fixed, unchanging versions of
    those implementations within the formal dated location for the
    Recommendation (/TR/YYYY/REC-whatever-YYYYmmdd/...).</li>
  <li>The Working Group will also provide a version of that implementation in
    the working group's space on the W3C server (/MarkUp), uncoupled from a
    specific dated version of the associated Recommendation. In the beginning
    this uncoupled version will be *identical* to the version from the
    associated Recommendation.</li>
  <li>If the Working Group identifies a problem with an implementation, and it
    is possible to solve the problem in a way that is 100 percent backward
    compatible, then the version in the group's space will be updated in place
    and an announcement will be sent to the XHTML 2 public email list.</li>
</ul>

<p>The XHTML 2 Working Group states that the term "backward compatible" should
be used only when:</p>
<ul>
  <li>The external interface to the module cannot change in any way that would
    break another module or markup language, either within or outside of the
    W3C.</li>
  <li>The content model cannot change in any way that would cause a previously
    valid document to become invalid. </li>
</ul>

<p>If either of the above constraints would be violated by a change, the
working group will either 1) not make the change, or 2) revise the applicable
module. In the latter case, the working group will also change the associated
identifiers.</p>

<p class="navbar"><a href="#xhtml1">XHTML 1.0</a> | <a href="#html4">HTML
4.01</a> | <a href="#xhtml-basic">XHTML basic</a> | <a
href="#xhtml-modularization">Modularization of XHTML</a> | <a
href="#xhtml11">XHTML 1.1</a> | <a href="#xml-events">XML Events</a></p>

<h3><a id="xhtml1" name="xhtml1" href="../TR/xhtml1">XHTML 1.0</a></h3>

<p>XHTML 1.0 was the W3C's first Recommendation for XHTML, following on from <a
href="#previous">earlier work</a> on HTML 4.01, HTML 4.0, HTML 3.2 and HTML
2.0. With a wealth of features, XHTML 1.0 is a reformulation of HTML 4.01 in
XML, and combines the strength of HTML 4 with the power of XML.</p>

<p>XHTML 1.0 was the first major change to HTML since HTML 4.0 was released in
1997. It brings the rigor of XML to Web pages and is the keystone in W3C's work
to create standards that provide richer Web pages on an ever increasing range
of browser platforms including cell phones, televisions, cars, wallet sized
wireless communicators, kiosks, and desktops.</p>

<p>XHTML 1.0 was the first step: it reformulates HTML as an XML application.
This makes it easier to process and easier to maintain. XHTML 1.0 borrows
elements and attributes from W3C's earlier work on HTML 4, and can be
interpreted by existing browsers, by following a few simple <a
href="../TR/xhtml1/#guidelines">guidelines</a>. This allows you to start using
XHTML now!</p>

<p>You can roll over your old HTML documents into XHTML using an Open Source <a
href="#tidy">HTML Tidy</a> utility. This tool also cleans up markup errors,
removes clutter and prettifies the markup making it easier to maintain.</p>

<h4><a id="flavors" name="flavors">Three "flavors" of XHTML 1.0</a></h4>

<p>XHTML 1.0 is specified in three "flavors". You specify which of these
variants you are using by inserting a line at the beginning of the document.
For example, the HTML for this document starts with a line which says that it
is using XHTML 1.0 Strict. Thus, if you want to validate the document, the tool
used knows which variant you are using. Each variant has its own DTD - Document
Type Definition - which sets out the rules and regulations for using HTML in a
succinct and definitive manner.</p>
<ul>
  <li id="xhtml1-strict"><p><strong>XHTML 1.0 Strict</strong> - Use this when
    you want really clean structural mark-up, free of any markup associated
    with layout. Use this together with W3C's Cascading Style Sheet language
    (<a href="../Style/CSS/">CSS</a>) to get the font, color, and layout
    effects you want.</p>
  </li>
  <li id="xhtml1-transitional"><p><strong>XHTML 1.0 Transitional</strong> -
    Many people writing Web pages for the general public to access might want
    to use this flavor of XHTML 1.0. The idea is to take advantage of XHTML
    features including style sheets but nonetheless to make small adjustments
    to your markup for the benefit of those viewing your pages with older
    browsers which can't understand style sheets. These include using the
    <code>body</code> element with <code>bgcolor</code>, <code>text</code> and
    <code>link</code> attributes.</p>
  </li>
  <li id="xhtml1-frameset"><p><strong>XHTML 1.0 Frameset</strong> - Use this
    when you want to use Frames to partition the browser window into two or
    more frames.</p>
  </li>
</ul>

<p>The complete <a href="../TR/xhtml1">XHTML 1.0 specification</a> is available
in English in several formats, including HTML, PostScript and <abbr
title="Portable Document Format">PDF</abbr>. See also the <a
href="../TR/xhtml1,translations">list of translations</a> produced by
volunteers.</p>
<!--
<h2 id="xhtml1-html4"><a href="../TR/xhtml1">XHTML 1.0</a> and <a
href="../TR/html4">HTML 4.01</a></h2>
-->

<h3><a id="html4" name="html4" href="../TR/html4">HTML 4.01</a></h3>

<p><a href="../TR/html4">HTML 4.01</a> is a revision of the HTML 4.0
Recommendation first released on 18th December 1997. The revision fixes minor
errors that have been found since then. The XHTML 1.0 spec relies on HTML 4.01
for the meanings of XHTML elements and attributes. This allowed us to reduce
the size of the XHTML 1.0 spec very considerably.</p>

<h3><a id="xhtml-basic" name="xhtml-basic" href="../TR/xhtml-basic">XHTML
Basic</a></h3>

<p>XHTML Basic is the second Recommendation in a series of XHTML
specifications.</p>

<p>The XHTML Basic document type includes the minimal set of modules required
to be an XHTML Host Language document type, and in addition it includes images,
forms, basic tables, and object support. It is designed for Web clients that do
not support the full set of XHTML features; for example, Web clients such as
mobile phones, <abbr title="Personal Digital Assistant">PDA</abbr>s, pagers,
and settop boxes. The document type is rich enough for content authoring.</p>

<p>XHTML Basic is designed as a common base that may be extended. For example,
an event module that is more generic than the traditional HTML 4 event system
could be added or it could be extended by additional modules from XHTML
Modularization such as the Scripting Module. The goal of XHTML Basic is to
serve as a common language supported by various kinds of user agents.</p>

<p>The document type definition is implemented using XHTML modules as defined
in "<cite><a href="#xhtml-modularization">Modularization of
XHTML</a></cite>".</p>

<p>The complete <a href="../TR/xhtml-basic">XHTML Basic specification</a> is
available in English in several formats, including HTML, plain text, PostScript
and PDF. See also the <a href="../TR/xhtml-basic,translations">list of
translations</a> produced by volunteers.</p>

<h3><a id="xhtml-modularization" name="xhtml-modularization"
href="../TR/xhtml-modularization">XHTML Modularization</a></h3>

<p><em>XHTML Modularization</em> is the third Recommendation in a series of
XHTML specifications.</p>

<p>This Recommendation does not specify a markup language but an abstract
modularization of XHTML and an implementation of the abstraction using XML
Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and (in version 1.1) XML Schemas. This
modularization provides a means for subsetting and extending XHTML, a feature
needed for extending XHTML's reach onto emerging platforms.</p>

<p>Modularization of XHTML makes it easier to combine with markup tags for
things like vector graphics, multimedia, math, electronic commerce and more.
Content providers will find it easier to produce content for a wide range of
platforms, with better assurances as to how the content is rendered, and that
the content is valid.</p>

<p>The modular design reflects the realization that a one-size-fits-all
approach no longer works in a world where browsers vary enormously in their
capabilities. A browser in a cellphone can't offer the same experience as a top
of the range multimedia desktop machine. The cellphone doesn't even have the
memory to load the page designed for the desktop browser.</p>

<p>See also <a
href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/2010/xhtml-m12n-relaxng-20101216/">XHTML
Modularization for RelaxNG</a> and <a href="modularization">an overview of
XHTML Modularization</a>.</p>

<h3><a id="xhtml11" name="xhtml11" href="../TR/xhtml11">XHTML 1.1 -
Module-based XHTML</a></h3>

<p>This Recommendation defines a new XHTML document type that is based upon the
module framework and modules defined in Modularization of XHTML. The purpose of
this document type is to serve as the basis for future extended XHTML 'family'
document types, and to provide a consistent, forward-looking document type
cleanly separated from the deprecated, legacy functionality of HTML 4 that was
brought forward into the XHTML 1.0 document types.</p>

<p>This document type is essentially a reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict using
XHTML Modules. This means that many facilities available in other XHTML Family
document types (e.g., XHTML Frames) are not available in this document type.
These other facilities are available through modules defined in Modularization
of XHTML, and document authors are free to define document types based upon
XHTML 1.1 that use these facilities (see Modularization of XHTML for
information on creating new document types).</p>

<h4><a id="differences" name="differences">What is the difference between XHTML
1.0, XHTML Basic and XHTML 1.1?</a></h4>

<p>The first step was to reformulate <a href="#html4">HTML 4</a> in XML,
resulting in <a href="#xhtml1">XHTML 1.0</a>. By following the <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#guidelines">HTML Compatibility
Guidelines</a> set forth in Appendix C of the XHTML 1.0 specification, XHTML
1.0 documents could be compatible with existing HTML user agents.</p>

<p>The next step is to modularize the elements and attributes into convenient
collections for use in documents that combine XHTML with other tag sets. The
modules are defined in <a href="#xhtml-modularization">Modularization of
XHTML</a>. <a href="#xhtml-basic">XHTML Basic</a> is an example of fairly
minimal build of these modules and is targeted at mobile applications.</p>

<p><a href="#xhtml11">XHTML 1.1</a> is an example of a larger build of the
modules, avoiding many of the presentation features. While XHTML 1.1 looks very
similar to XHTML 1.0 Strict, it is designed to serve as the basis for future
extended XHTML Family document types, and its modular design makes it easier to
add other modules as needed or integrate itself into other markup languages. <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/appendixa.html#parsing.module">XHTML 1.1
plus MathML 2.0</a> document type is an example of such XHTML Family document
type.</p>
</div>

<h3><a id="xhtml-print" name="xhtml-print"
href="../TR/xhtml-print">XHTML-Print</a></h3>

<blockquote cite="../TR/xhtml-print/#abstract">
  <p>XHTML-Print is member of the family of XHTML Languages defined by the
  <cite>Modularization of <abbr
  title="Extensible HyperText Markup Language">XHTML</abbr></cite>. It is
  designed to be appropriate for printing from mobile devices to low-cost
  printers that might not have a full-page buffer and that generally print from
  top-to-bottom and left-to-right with the paper in a portrait orientation.
  XHTML-Print is also targeted at printing in environments where it is not
  feasible or desirable to install a printer-specific driver and where some
  variability in the formatting of the output is acceptable.</p>
</blockquote>

<div id="main1" class="main">
<h3><a id="xml-events" name="xml-events" href="../TR/xml-events">XML
Events</a></h3>

<p class="note"><em><strong>Note.</strong> This specification was renamed from
"XHTML Events".</em></p>

<blockquote cite="../TR/xml-events/#abstract">
  <p>The XML Events module defined in this specification provides XML languages
  with the ability to uniformly integrate event listeners and associated event
  handlers with Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 event interfaces. The
  result is to provide an interoperable way of associating behaviors with
  document-level markup.</p>
</blockquote>

<h3><a id="previous" name="previous">Previous Versions of HTML</a></h3>
<dl>
  <!--
                                                          <dt><a id="html401" name="html401" href="../TR/html401">HTML 4.01</a></dt>

                                                          <dd>The <a href="../TR/html401">HTML 4.01</a> Recommendation
                                                          released on 24th December 1999 fixes a number of bugs in the HTML
                                                          4.0 specification. The list of changes are detailed in <a
                                                          href="../TR/html401/appendix/changes">appendix A</a>.</dd>
                                                          -->
  <dt><a id="html40" name="html40" href="../TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424">HTML
  4.0</a></dt>
    <dd>First released as a W3C Recommendation on 18 December 1997. A second
      release was issued on 24 April 1998 with changes limited to editorial
      corrections. <strong>This specification has now been superseded by <a
      href="../TR/html401">HTML 4.01</a>.</strong></dd>
  <dt><a id="html32" name="html32" href="../TR/REC-html32">HTML 3.2</a></dt>
    <dd>W3C's first Recommendation for HTML which represented the consensus on
      HTML features for 1996. HTML 3.2 added widely-deployed features such as
      tables, applets, text-flow around images, superscripts and subscripts,
      while providing backwards compatibility with the existing <a
      href="html-spec/">HTML 2.0 Standard</a>.</dd>
  <dt><a id="html20" name="html20" href="html-spec/">HTML 2.0</a></dt>
    <dd><a href="html-spec/">HTML 2.0</a> (<a
      href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1866.txt"><abbr
      title="Request For Comments">RFC</abbr> 1866</a>) was developed by the
      <abbr title="Internet Engineering Task Force">IETF</abbr>'s HTML Working
      Group, which closed in 1996. It set the standard for core HTML features
      based upon current practice in 1994. Note that with the release of <a
      href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2854.txt">RFC 2854</a>, RFC 1866
      has been obsoleted and its <a
      href="http://www.ietf.org/iesg/1rfc_index.txt">current status</a> is
      <strong>HISTORIC</strong>.</dd>
</dl>

<h3><a id="isohtml" name="isohtml"><abbr
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</abbr> HTML</a></h3>

<p><a
title="Information technology - Document description and processing languages - HyperText Markup Language (HTML)"
href="http://purl.org/NET/ISO+IEC.15445/15445.html">ISO/<abbr
title="International Electrotechnical Commission">IEC</abbr> 15445:2000</a> is
a subset of HTML 4, standardized by ISO/IEC. It takes a more rigorous stance
for instance, an <code>h3</code> element can't occur after an <code>h1</code>
element unless there is an intervening <code>h2</code> element. Roger Price and
David Abrahamson have written a <a
href="http://purl.org/NET/ISO+IEC.15445/Users-Guide.html">user's guide to ISO
HTML</a>.</p>

<h2><a id="drafts" name="drafts">Other Public Drafts</a></h2>

<p>The current editors' drafts of all specifications are linked to from a
separate <a href="Drafts/">drafts page</a>.</p>

<p>If you have any comments on any of our specifications we would like to hear
from you via email. Please send your comments to: <a
href="mailto:www-html-editor@w3.org">www-html-editor@w3.org</a> (<a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html-editor/">archive</a>). Don't
forget to include <strong>XHTML</strong> in the subject line.</p>

<h3><a id="xhtml2" name="xhtml2" href="../TR/xhtml2">XHTML 2.0</a></h3>

<p>XHTML 2.0 is a markup language intended for rich, portable web-based
applications. While the ancestry of XHTML 2.0 comes from HTML 4, XHTML 1.0, and
XHTML 1.1, it is <em>not</em> intended to be 100% backwards compatible with its
earlier versions. Application developers familiar with its earlier ancestors
will be comfortable working with XHTML 2.0.</p>

<p>XHTML 2.0 is a member of the XHTML Family of markup languages. It is an
XHTML Host Language as defined in <a
href="#xhtml-modularization">Modularization of XHTML</a>. As such, it is made
up of a set of XHTML Modules that together describe the elements and attributes
of the language, and their content model. XHTML 2.0 updates many of the modules
defined in Modularization of XHTML, and includes the updated versions of all
those modules and their semantics. </p>

<p>XHTML 2.0 essentially consists of a packaging of several parts currently
independently proceeding to recommendation:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-syntax/">RDFa</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xforms11/">XForms</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-access/">Access</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-role/">Role</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-events2/">XML Events</a></li>
</ul>

<p>plus the necessary text and hyperlinking modules, which you will find in the
XHTML2 draft.</p>

<p>The most recent <a href="Drafts/#xhtml2">editor's draft</a> can always be
found on the XHTML2 WG's drafts page.</p>

<h3><a id="XHTMLplusMathMLplusSVG" name="XHTMLplusMathMLplusSVG"
href="../TR/XHTMLplusMathMLplusSVG">An XHTML + MathML + SVG Profile</a></h3>

<p>An XHTML+MathML+SVG profile is a profile that combines XHTML 1.1, MathML 2.0
and SVG 1.1 together. This profile enables mixing XHTML, MathML and SVG in the
same document using XML namespaces mechanism, while allowing validation of such
a mixed-namespace document.</p>

<p>This specification is a joint work with the SVG Working Group, with the help
from the Math WG.</p>

<h3><a id="xframes" name="xframes" href="../TR/xframes">XFrames</a></h3>

<p>XFrames is an XML application for composing documents together, replacing
HTML Frames. XFrames is <em>not</em> a part of XHTML per se, that allows
similar functionality to HTML Frames, with fewer usability problems,
principally by making the content of the frameset visible in its URI.</p>

<h3><a id="hlink" name="hlink" href="../TR/hlink">HLink</a></h3>

<blockquote cite="../TR/hlink/#abstract">
  <p>The HLink module defined in this specification provides XHTML Family
  Members with the ability to specify which attributes of elements represent
  Hyperlinks, and how those hyperlinks should be traversed, and extends XLink
  use to a wider class of languages than those restricted to the syntactic
  style allowed by XLink.</p>
</blockquote>

<h3><a id="xhtml-media-types" name="xhtml-media-types"
href="../TR/xhtml-media-types">XHTML Media Types</a></h3>

<blockquote cite="../TR/xhtml-media-types/#abstract">
  <p>This document summarizes the best current practice for using various
  Internet media types for serving various XHTML Family documents. <a
  href="../TR/xhtml-media-types/#summary">In summary</a>,
  'application/xhtml+xml' <strong>SHOULD</strong> be used for XHTML Family
  documents, and the use of 'text/html' <strong>SHOULD</strong> be limited to
  <abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr>-compatible XHTML 1.0
  documents. 'application/xml' and 'text/xml' <strong>MAY</strong> also be
  used, but whenever appropriate, 'application/xhtml+xml'
  <strong>SHOULD</strong> be used rather than those generic <abbr
  title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr> media types.</p>
</blockquote>

<h3><a id="xhtml1-schema" name="xhtml1-schema" href="../TR/xhtml1-schema">XHTML
1.0 in XML Schema</a></h3>

<p>This document describes <em>non-normative</em> XML Schemas for XHTML 1.0.
These Schemas are still work in progress, and this document <em>does not</em>
change the normative definition of XHTML 1.0.</p>

<h3><a id="xhtml-roadmap" name="xhtml-roadmap" href="xhtml-roadmap/">XHTML2
Working Group Roadmap</a></h3>

<blockquote>
  <p>This describes the timeline for deliverables of the XHTML2 working group.
  It used to be a W3C NOTE but has now been moved to the MarkUp area for easier
  maintenance.</p>
</blockquote>
</div>

<h2 id="issues">Issue tracking</h2>

<p>There are two sets of issues being tracked:</p>
<dl>
  <dt><a href="http://htmlwg.mn.aptest.com/xhtml2-issues">XHTML2 Issue Tracking
  System</a></dt>
    <dd>This database is dedicated to XHTML2 issues.</dd>
  <dt><a href="http://htmlwg.mn.aptest.com/voyager-issues">Voyager Issue
  Tracking System</a></dt>
    <dd>This database contains issues for all other specs.</dd>
</dl>

<p></p>

<div id="main11" class="main">
<!--
<h3><a id="xhtml-building" name="xhtml-building">Building
XHTML Modules</a></h3>

<p><em>Note: This document has been incorporated into
"<cite><a href="#xhtml-modularization" >Modularization of
XHTML</a></cite>".</em></p>

<h3><a id="xhtml-prof-req" name="xhtml-prof-req"
href="../TR/xhtml-prof-req">XHTML Document Profile Requirements</a></h3>

<blockquote>
<p>The increasing disparities between the capabilities of
different kinds of Web browsers present challenges to Web content
developers wishing to reach a wide audience. A promising approach
is to formally describe profiles for documents intended for broad
groups of browsers, for instance, separate document profiles for
browsers running on desktops, television, handhelds, cellphones
and voice browsers. Document profiles provide a basis for
interoperability guarantees. If an author develops content for a
given profile and a browser supports the profile then the author
may be confident that the document will be rendered as expected.
The requirements for document profiles are analyzed.</p>
</blockquote>
-->

<h2><a id="information" name="information">Useful information for HTML/XHTML
authors</a></h2>

<h3><a id="tutorials" name="tutorials">Tutorials</a></h3>
<ul>
  <li><a href="Guide/"><cite>Getting started with HTML</cite></a> by Dave
    Raggett is a short introduction to writing HTML, including tutorials on <a
    href="Guide/Advanced">advanced features</a>.</li>
  <li><a href="Guide/Style"><cite>Adding a touch of style</cite></a> by Dave
    Raggett is a short guide to styling your Web pages.</li>
  <li><a href="Guide/xhtml-m12n-tutorial/"><cite>XHTML Modules and Markup
    Languages - How to create XHTML Family modules and markup languages for fun
    and profit</cite></a> by Shane McCarron explains how to create XHTML Family
    modules and markup languages, based on <a
    href="#xhtml-modularization">Modularization of XHTML</a>.</li>
  <li><a href="2004/xmlevents-for-html-authors"><cite>XML Events for HTML
    Authors</cite></a> by <a href="http://homepages.cwi.nl/~steven/">Steven
    Pemberton</a> is a quick introduction to XML Events for HTML authors,
    explaining how XML Events are the same as HTML Event handling
    (<code>onclick</code> etc), but written differently.</li>
  <li><cite>XForms for HTML Authors</cite> <a
    href="Forms/2003/xforms-for-html-authors.html">Part 1</a> and <a
    href="Forms/2006/xforms-for-html-authors-part2">Part 2</a> by <a
    href="http://homepages.cwi.nl/~steven/">Steven Pemberton</a> is a quick
    introduction to writing XForms, leveraging the reader's existing knowledge
    of HTML Forms.</li>
</ul>

<h3><a id="slides" name="slides">Slides on XHTML</a></h3>

<p>You may also be interested in the following slides on XHTML:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/Talks/1999/03/24-stockholm-xhtml/">XHTML: The
    Extensible Hypertext Markup Language</a> by Dave Raggett, at W3C LA event
    in Stockholm, 24 March 1999.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/Talks/1999/05/www8-html/slide1.html">W3C HTML
    Activity</a> by Dave Raggett, as part of <a
    href="http://www8.org/">WWW8</a> W3C Track, 12 May 1999</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/Talks/1999/12/XHTML-XML99/slide1.html">W3C
    Work on XHTML</a> by Dave Raggett, at <a
    href="http://www.gca.org/attend/1999_conferences/xml_99/">XML '99</a>, 6
    December 1999. The presentation describes the work being done by W3C on
    XHTML.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/09/21-orf/xhtml-family/"
    hreflang="ja">The XHTML Family</a> (in <span xml:lang="ja"
    lang="ja">???</span>/Japanese) by Masayasu Ishikawa, at <a
    href="http://www.kri.sfc.keio.ac.jp/ORF/2001/" hreflang="ja"><abbr
    title="Shonan Fujisawa Campus">SFC</abbr> Open Research Forum 2001</a>, 21
    September 2001.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/Talks/2002/04/11-pemberton">XForms, XHTML and
    Device Independence</a> by Steven Pemberton, at <a
    href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Offices/Germany/Events/Cross-Media-Publishing">W3C.DE-Arbeitstreffen:
    Cross Media Publishing</a>, 11 April 2002.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/www2002-xhtml/">XHTML Family</a> by
    Masayasu Ishikawa, as part of <a href="http://www2002.org/">WWW2002</a> <a
    href="http://www2002.org/w3ctrack.html">W3C Track</a>, 9 May 2002. Slides
    are available in <a type="application/xhtml+xml"
    href="http://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/www2002-xhtml/Overview.xhtml">XHTML</a>
    or <a type="text/html"
    href="http://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/www2002-xhtml/Overview.html">HTML</a>
    (XHTML version needs XHTML+MathML+SVG+Ruby support).</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/orf2002-xhtml2/"
    hreflang="en">XHTML 2.0</a> (in <span xml:lang="ja"
    lang="ja">???</span>/Japanese) by Masayasu Ishikawa, at <a
    href="http://www.kri.sfc.keio.ac.jp/ORF/2002/" hreflang="ja"><abbr
    title="Shonan Fujisawa Campus">SFC</abbr> Open Research Forum 2002</a>, 22
    November 2002.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2003/Talks/www2003-steven-xhtml-xforms/">XHTML
    2.0 and XForms</a> by Steven Pemberton, as part of <a
    href="http://www2003.org/">WWW2003</a> <a
    href="http://www.w3.org/2003/03/w3c-track03.html">W3C Track</a>, 21 May
    2003.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2003/Talks/www2003-steven-horizontal/">W3C's
    Horizontal Activities Usage: XHTML Family Case Study</a> by Steven
    Pemberton, WWW2003 W3C Track, 23 May 2003.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2003/Talks/0704-steven-xhtml-xforms/">XHTML
    and XForms</a> by Steven Pemberton, at <span xml:lang="nl"
    lang="nl">Zomersessie van NGI Limburg: XHTML2 en XForms, state of the art
    en stage-ervaringen bij het W3C</span>, 3 July 2003.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/04-19-steven-XHTML2-XForms/">XHTML2
    and XForms</a> by Steven Pemberton, organized by the <a
    href="http://www.w3c.de/Events/2005/HTMLtut.html">German and Austrian
    Office</a>, 19 April 2005.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/05-steven-www2005/">The Semantic
    Browser: Improving the User Experience</a> by Mark Birbeck and Steven
    Pemberton, WWW2005 W3C Track, 13 May 2005.</li>
  <li><a
    href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/05-steven-Metadata-in-XHTML2/">Metadata
    in XHTML2</a> by Steven Pemberton, at <a
    href="http://www.newssummit.org/2005/">News Standards Summit 2005</a>, 24
    May 2005.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/05-steven-xtech/">XHTML2:
    Accessible, Usable, Device Independent and Semantic</a> by Steven Pemberton
    and Mark Birbeck, at <a
    href="http://www.xtech-conference.org/2005/about.asp">XTech 2005
    Conference</a>, 26 May 2005.</li>
</ul>

<h3><a id="guidelines" name="guidelines">Guidelines for authoring</a></h3>

<p>Here are some rough guidelines for HTML authors. If you use these, you are
more likely to end up with pages that are easy to maintain, look acceptable to
users regardless of the browser they are using, and can be accessed by the many
Web users with disabilities. Meanwhile W3C have produced some more formal
guidelines for authors. Have a look at the detailed <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
1.0</a>.</p>
<ol>
  <li><strong>A question of style sheets.</strong> For most people the look of
    a document - the color, the font, the margins - are as important as the
    textual content of the document itself. But make no mistake! HTML is not
    designed to be used to control these aspects of document layout. What you
    should do is to use HTML to mark up headings, paragraphs, lists, hypertext
    links, and other structural parts of your document, and then add a style
    sheet to specify layout separately, just as you might do in a conventional
    Desk Top Publishing Package. That way, not only is there a better chance of
    all browsers displaying your document properly, but also, if you want to
    change such things as the font or color, it's really simple to do so. See
    the <a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Style">Touch of style</a>.</li>
  <li><strong><code>FONT</code> tag considered harmful!</strong> Many filters
    from word-processing packages, and also some HTML authoring tools, generate
    HTML code which is completely contrary to the design goals of the language.
    What they do is to look at a document almost purely from the point of view
    of layout, and then mimic that layout in HTML by doing tricks with
    <code>FONT</code>, <code>BR</code> and <code>&amp;nbsp;</code>
    (non-breaking spaces). HTML documents are supposed to be structured around
    items such as paragraphs, headings and lists. Yet some of these documents
    barely have a paragraph tag in sight! 
    <p>The problem comes when the content of pages needs to be updated, or
    given a new layout, or re-cast in XML (which is now to be the new mark-up
    language). With proper use of HTML, such operations are not difficult, but
    with a muddle of non-structural tags it's quite a different matter;
    maintenance tasks become impractical. To correct pages suffering from
    injudicious use of <code>FONT</code>, try the <a href="#tidy">HTML Tidy
    program</a>, which will do its best to put things right and generate better
    and more manageable HTML.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Make your pages readable by those with disabilities.</strong> The
    Web is a tremendously useful tool for the visually impaired or blind user,
    but bear in mind that these users rely on speech synthesizers or Braille
    readers to render the text. Sloppy mark-up, or mark-up which doesn't have
    the layout defined in a separate style sheet, is hard for such software to
    deal with. Wherever possible, use a style sheet for the presentational
    aspects of your pages, using HTML purely for structural mark-up. 
    <p>Also, remember to include descriptions with each image, and try to avoid
    server-side image maps. For tables, you should include a summary of the
    table's structure, and remember to associate table data with relevant
    headers. This will give non-visual browsers a chance to help orient people
    as they move from one cell to the next. For forms, remember to include
    labels for form fields.</p>
  </li>
</ol>

<p>Do look at the <a href="../WAI/Resources/#gl">accessibility guidelines</a>
for a more detailed account of how to make your Web pages really accessible.</p>

<h3><a id="validation" name="validation" href="http://validator.w3.org/">W3C
Markup Validation Service</a></h3>

<p>To further promote the reliability and fidelity of communications on the
Web, W3C has introduced the <a href="http://validator.w3.org/">W3C Markup
Validation Service</a> at <code class="URI">http://validator.w3.org/</code>.</p>

<p>Content providers can use this service to validate their Web pages against
the HTML and XHTML Recommendations, thereby ensuring the maximum possible
audience for their Web pages. It also supports XHTML Family document types such
as XHTML+MathML and <a href="#XHTMLplusMathMLplusSVG">XHTML+MathML+SVG</a>, and
also other markup vocabularies such as <a href="../Graphics/SVG/">SVG</a>.</p>

<p>Software developers who write HTML and XHTML editing tools can ensure
interoperability with other Web software by verifying that the output of their
tool complies with the W3C Recommendations for HTML and XHTML.</p>

<h4><a id="tidy" name="tidy">HTML Tidy</a></h4>

<p>HTML Tidy is a stand-alone tool for checking and pretty-printing HTML that
is in many cases able to fix up mark-up errors, and also offers a means to
convert existing HTML content into well-formed XML, for delivery as XHTML. HTML
Tidy was originally written by <a href="../People/Raggett/tidy/">Dave
Raggett</a>, and it is now maintained as an <a
href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/">open source project at SourceForge</a> by a
group of volunteers.</p>

<p>There is an <a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/html-tidy/">archived</a> public
mailing list html-tidy@w3.org. Please send bug reports / suggestions on HTML
Tidy to this mailing list.</p>

<h2><a id="forums" name="forums">Discussion Forums</a></h2>

<p>Changes to HTML necessitate obtaining a consensus from a broad range of
organizations. If you have a great idea, it will take time to convince others!
Here are some of the places where discussion on HTML takes place:</p>
<dl>
  <dt><a id="public-xhtml2"
  href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xhtml2/latest"
  name="public-xhtml2">public-xhtml2@w3.org</a> (<a
  href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xhtml2/feed.rss">RSS
  feed</a>)</dt>
    <dd><strong>New!</strong> This is the public mailing list where the XHTML2
      Working Group will conduct its work per its <a
      href="/2007/03/XHTML2-WG-charter.html#communication">charter</a>. </dd>
  <dt><a id="www-html" name="www-html"
  href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/">www-html@w3.org</a> (<a
  href="http://www.w3.org/2002/09/Lists2RSS?ml=www-html&amp;realm=Public">RSS
  feed</a>)</dt>
    <dd><strong>Note:</strong> The purpose of this list may change in March
      2007. A technical discussion list. If you have a proposal for a change to
      HTML/XHTML, you might start a discussion here to see what other
      developers think of it. 
      <ul>
        <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/Mail/Request">how to subscribe</a></li>
        <li><a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/">archives
          from 1994 to present</a></li>
        <li>(We're working on moving the old archives to W3C. Stay tuned!)</li>
      </ul>
    </dd>
  <!-- Not sure what to do with this list yet -->
  <dt><a id="www-html-editor" name="www-html-editor"
  href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html-editor/">www-html-editor@w3.org</a>
  (<a
  href="http://www.w3.org/2002/09/Lists2RSS?ml=www-html-editor&amp;realm=Public">RSS
  feed</a>)</dt>
    <dd><strong>Note:</strong> The purpose of this list may change in March
      2007. This is a list to report errors / send review comments on
      HTML/XHTML specifications. <em>This is NOT a discussion list.</em> Anyone
      may send comments without subscription, although you'll be <a
      href="http://www.w3.org/2002/09/aa/">requested to give explicit
      approval</a> to include your message in our publicly-readable <a
      href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html-editor/">mailing list
      archive</a> at your first post. To subscribe, send subscription request
      to www-html-editor-request@w3.org. For more information, see <a
      href="http://www.w3.org/Mail/Request">how to subscribe</a>.</dd>
  <dt><a
  href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-translators/">w3c-translators@w3.org</a>
  (<a
  href="http://www.w3.org/2002/09/Lists2RSS?ml=w3c-translators&amp;realm=Public">RSS
  feed</a>)</dt>
    <dd>This is a mailing list for people working on translations of W3C
      specifications such as the <a href="translations">HTML/XHTML
      Recommendations</a>. To subscribe, send an email to
      w3c-translators-request@w3.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject
      line; (include the word "unsubscribe" if you want to unsubscribe.) The <a
      id="trans" name="trans"
      href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-translators/">archive</a>
      for the list is accessible online.</dd>
  <dt><a id="comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html"
  name="comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html"
  href="news:comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html">comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html</a></dt>
    <dd>A USENET newsgroup where HTML authoring issues are discussed. "How To"
      questions should be addressed here. Note that many issues related to
      forms and CGI, image maps, transparent gifs, etc. are covered in the <a
      href="http://www.boutell.com/faq/"><abbr
      title="World Wide Web">WWW</abbr> <abbr
      title="Frequently Asked Questions">FAQ</abbr></a>.</dd>
  <dt>IETF MHTML WG (closed)</dt>
    <dd>Developed <a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2557.txt">RFC
      2557</a> - "MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate Documents, such as HTML
      (MHTML). J. Palme et al. March 1989.</dd>
  <dt><a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/HTML-WG">IETF HTML Working Group</a>
  (closed)</dt>
    <dd>The HTML working group of the <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a>,
      closed in 1996.</dd>
  <dt>Web Conferences</dt>
    <dd>The next international conference dedicated to the Web is <a
      href="http://www2007.org/">WWW2007</a>, to be held in Banff, Canada. The
      last was <a href="http://www2006.org/">WWW2006</a> in Edinburgh,
    Scotland.</dd>
</dl>

<h2><a id="related" name="related">Related W3C Work</a></h2>
<dl>
  <dt><a id="xml" name="xml" href="../XML/">XML</a></dt>
    <dd>XML is the universal format for structured documents and data on the
      Web. It allows you to define your own mark-up formats when HTML is not a
      good fit. XML is being used increasingly for data; for instance, W3C's
      metadata format <a href="../RDF/"><abbr
      title="Resource Description Framework">RDF</abbr></a>.</dd>
  <dt><a id="style" name="style" href="../Style/">Style Sheets</a></dt>
    <dd>W3C's <a href="../Style/CSS/">Cascading Style Sheets language</a>
      (<abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr>) provides a simple means
      to style HTML pages, allowing you to control visual and aural
      characteristics; for instance, fonts, margins, line-spacing, borders,
      colors, layers and more. W3C is also working on a new style sheet
      language written in XML called <a href="../Style/XSL/"><abbr
      title="Extensible Stylesheet Language">XSL</abbr></a>, which provides a
      means to transform XML documents into HTML.</dd>
  <dt><a id="dom" name="dom" href="../DOM/">Document Object Model</a></dt>
    <dd>Provides ways for scripts to manipulate HTML using a set of methods and
      data types defined independently of particular programming languages or
      computer platforms. It forms the basis for dynamic effects in Web pages,
      but can also be exploited in HTML editors and other tools by extensions
      for manipulating HTML content.</dd>
  <dt><a id="i18n" name="i18n"
  href="../International/">Internationalization</a></dt>
    <dd>HTML 4 provides a number of features for use with a wide variety of
      languages and writing systems. For instance, mixed language text, and
      right-to-left and mixed direction text. HTML 4 is formally based upon
      Unicode, but allows you to store and transmit documents in a variety of
      character encodings. Further work is envisaged for handling vertical text
      and phonetic annotations for Kanji (<a href="../TR/ruby">Ruby</a>).</dd>
  <dt><a id="wai" name="wai" href="../WAI/">Access for People with
  Disabilities</a></dt>
    <dd>HTML 4 includes many features for improved access by people with
      disabilities. W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative is working on providing
      effective guidelines for making your pages accessible to all, not just
      those using graphical browsers.</dd>
  <dt><a id="xforms" name="xforms" href="Forms/">XForms</a></dt>
    <dd>Forms are a very widely used feature in web pages. W3C is working on
      the design of the next generation of web forms with a view to separating
      the presentation, data and logic, as a means to allowing the same forms
      to be used with widely differing presentations.</dd>
  <dt><a id="math" name="math" href="../Math/">Mathematics</a></dt>
    <dd>Work on representing mathematics on the Web has focused on ways to
      handle the presentation of mathematical expressions and also the intended
      meaning. The <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2"><abbr
      title="Mathematical Markup Language">MathML</abbr></a> language is an
      application of XML, which, while not suited to hand-editing, is easy to
      process by machine.</dd>
</dl>

<h2><a id="contacts" name="contacts">Contacts</a></h2>

<div class="address">
<ul>
  <li><a href="../People/all#steven">Steven Pemberton</a> is the Team Contact
    for the XHTML2 Working Group</li>
</ul>
</div>

<p><a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
src="../Icons/valid-xhtml10" alt="Valid XHTML 1.0!" height="31" width="88" />
</a></p>

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