- Starting a New Paragraph
- Adding Author Contact Information
- Creating a Figure
- Specifying Time
- Marking Important and Emphasized Text
- Indicating a Citation or Reference
- Quoting Text
- Highlighting Text
- Explaining Abbreviations
- Defining a Term
- Creating Superscripts and Subscripts
- Noting Edits and Inaccurate Text
- Marking Up Code
- Using Preformatted Text
- Specifying Fine Print
- Creating a Line Break
- Creating Spans
- Other Elements
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Adding Author Contact Information
You might think the address element is for marking up a postal address, but it isn’t (except for one circumstance; see the tips). In fact, there isn’t an HTML element explicitly designed for that purpose.
Instead, address defines the contact information for the author, people, or organization relevant to an HTML page (usually appearing at the end of the page, if at all) or part of a page, such as within a report or a news article (
and 
).
This page has two address elements: one for the article’s author and the other in a page-level footer for the people who maintain the whole page. Note that the address for the article contains contact information only. Although the background information about Tracey Wong is also in the article’s footer, it’s outside the address element.
... <body><article><h1>Museum Opens on the Waterfront</h1> <p>The new art museum not only introduces a range of contemporary works to the city, it's part of larger development effort on the waterfront.</p> ... [rest of story content] ... <!-- the article's footer with address information for the article --> <footer> <p>Tracey Wong has written for <cite> The Paper of Papers</cite> since receiving her MFA in art history three years ago.</p><address>Email her at <a href="mailto: traceyw@thepaperofpapers.com"> traceyw@thepaperofpapers.com </a>.</address></footer></article><!-- the page's footer with address information for the whole page --> <footer> <p><small>© 2011 The Paper of Papers, Inc.</small></p><address>Have a question or comment about the site? <a href="site-feedback.html"> Contact our Web team</a>.</address></footer> </body> </html>
The address element renders in italics by default.
To provide the author’s contact information
- If you want to provide author contact information for an article, place the cursor within that article. Alternatively, place the cursor within the body (or, more commonly, the page-level footer) if you want to provide author contact information for the page at large.
- Type <address>.
- Type the author’s email address, a link to a page with contact information, and so on.
- Type </address>.
TIP
address pertains to the nearest article element ancestor, or to the page’s body if address isn’t nested within an article. It’s customary to place address in a footer element when noting author contact information for the page at large
.
TIP
An address in an article provides contact information for the author of that article , not for any articles nested within that article, such as user comments.
TIP
address may contain author contact information only, not anything else such as the document or article’s last modified date . Additionally, HTML5 forbids nesting any of the following elements inside address: h1–h6, article, address, aside, footer, header, hgroup, nav, and section.