The Head section is really a catch-all area for information that is
related to the document but is not actually viewable content.
This section also contains information ABOUT the document which is used
to help display or process the document's contents. Historically, the head
element of a document was usually a small section. This has changed
considerably in the last couple of years as the level and capability of
HTML document interaction has greatly increased (with the advent of style
sheets, web scripting, and intelligent search engine cataloging.)
This establishes common defaults to be used when referencing relative file
path names out of context or for establishing a common destination for
framed document navigation scenarios. For frames, all TARGETs will default
to the frame name specified by the TARGET attribute unless overridden
locally. For file paths, the Base can be used as an absolute reference
that is used to resolve relative or fragmented path names (Absolute file paths do not use it.)
This is a legacy feature from the period before HTML 2.0 and forms
capability. It allows a simple text string to be submitted to a processing
engine for evaluation. It has none of the variety and finesse that is
capable through current HTML forms.
This element establishes relationships between the current document
and some other object. A document may have any number of LINK elements
which can indicate authorship, related indices and glossaries, older or
more recent versions, document hierarchy, associated resources such as
style sheets, etc.
These elements can contain a wide variety of information that may
or may not be relevant to a browser. This element is an extensible mechanism
to allow associated name/value pairs. This allows an author to include
specialized information that does not fit in any other HEAD element
situation.
Listed strictly for completeness with the HTML 2.0 specification,
this element has disappeared from later HTML specifications altogether and
is not used by browsers.
This element allows a scripting language to interface with an HTML
document. It is generally safer to place a SCRIPT statement in the HEAD
area (although it is allowed both in the HEAD and BODY elements), because
script statements are evaluated when the document is loaded (remember that
the HEAD element comes before the BODY element.) See the
Related Links section on Scripting for
other sites on this subject.
This element allows style information to be listed as a block
(Document Level Style Sheets)
instead of listing the information in an external document or on a
tag-by-tag basis. Style information is embedded in an HTML comment within
the STYLE element as a series of Selector/Style Declaration pairs. The
browser uses these statements to help in rendering the document. See the
Style Sheet Guide elsewhere in this
site for more information on Style Sheets.
This contains the title of the document. It is the only HEAD
element of a document that is REQUIRED under the specifications.
This title serves to identify the document when it is accessed - whether
it be by a human, a search engine or some other means. It is often
displayed as the caption for a document's display window when viewing.