NOTE : The <PLAINTEXT> element was designated as obsolete in recent drafts of the HTML 4.0 specification, which makes it likely that browsers will stop supporting it. While it's supported in Internet Explorer 3.02 (and preview versions of 4.0) and versions of Netscape up to 4.01, it is recommended that for new documents, <PRE> is used instead.

The <PLAINTEXT> element can be used to represent formatted text. As such, it is similar to the <XMP> and <LISTING> element. However, the <PLAINTEXT> element should be an open element, with no closing element. Only Netscape supports this element according to any HTML specification. Internet Explorer (3.02) and Mosaic will both allow the use of a </PLAINTEXT> closing element. Netscape and Internet Explorer 4.0 will treat the closing element literally and display it, with the rest of the document being displayed literally as well.

Typically, it will render as fixed width font with white space separating it from other text.

e.g.

I live<PLAINTEXT>in the rainiest part of the world.

Would render as:

I live

in the rainiest part of the world.

NOTE : As mentioned above, the <PLAINTEXT> element has been made obsolete in recent HTML 4.0 specifications. The above example actually uses the <PRE> to demonstrate how the element would be rendered in oder browsers. The <PRE> is recommended instead of the <PLAINTEXT> element for future documents.

As said above, anything following the opening <PLAINTEXT> element should be treated as text. Netscape (3.0 and above) and Internet Explorer (4.0 and above) behave like this. Older versions of Internet Explorer and all versions of Mosaic will allow the use of a closing </PLAINTEXT> element, allowing discrete blocks of <PLAINTEXT> formatted text to be displayed.

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 <PLAINTEXT> section.

LANG="language setting"
The LANG attribute can be used to specify what language the <PLAINTEXT> element 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 <PLAINTEXT> 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 <PLAINTEXT> as using a particular style sheet class. See the Style Sheets overview for more information and style sheet settings.

STYLE="In line style setting"
As well as using previously defined style sheet settings, the <PLAINTEXT> element can have in-line stylings attached to it. For example:

<PLAINTEXT STYLE="{font-family:Arial;font-size:8pt}">1, HTMLib Way, Swansea</PLAINTEXT>

would display in an 8pt Arial font. See the Style Sheets section for more details about style sheet settings.

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 <PLAINTEXT> element for scripting purposes. Any <PLAINTEXT> 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 <PLAINTEXT> element in a document is an object that can be manipulated through scripting. Note that scripting of the <PLAINTEXT> element/object is only supported by Internet Explorer 4.0 in its Dynamic HTML object model. Netscape does not support direct scripting of the <PLAINTEXT> element at all.

<PLAINTEXT...> Properties
The <PLAINTEXT...> element/object supports 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.

<PLAINTEXT...> Methods
The <PLAINTEXT...> element/object supports 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.

<PLAINTEXT...> Events
The <PLAINTEXT...> element/object supports 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

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