Attributes and usage of ins and del tags

ins and del attributes

cite : The attribute value is a URI of a document or information resource. This attribute is used to indicate why the explanation of this document is changed.

datetime : The attribute value clearly and in detail describes the date and time when the modification occurred.

INS and DEL are used to markup sections of the document that have been inserted or deleted with respect to a different version of a document (eg, in draft legislation where lawmakers need to view the changes).

These two elements are unusual for HTML in that they may serve as either block-level or inline elements (but not both). They may contain one or more words within a paragraph or contain one or more block-level elements such as paragraphs, lists, and tables.

del defines the text content that has been deleted in the document, and ins is used to describe updates and corrections in the document. The default browser style of del is deleted, and the default style of ins is underlined. This can also well illustrate the usage of the two. Usually the two elements are used together.

Usage of ins and del

In HTML, the ins and del elements can be either block-level elements or inline elements, but not both at the same time. So they can contain one or several words in a paragraph, or they can contain several block-level elements like paragraphs (p), lists (ul, ol, dl), tables (table), etc.

<p>I have <del cite="http://www.baikelu.com/" datetime="20070515T192525+08:00">2</del><ins cite="http://www.baikelu.com/" datetime="20070515T192525+08:00">3</ins> cents</p>

<del title="Just lost" datetime="20070515T192525+08:00"><p>I have 3 cents</p></del>

Authors can use the title attribute to comment on inserted or deleted elements, and user agents (such as browsers) may display this information to users.

<p><del title="Just lost" datetime="20070515T192525+08:00"><div><p>I have 3 cents</p></div></del></p>

This is an incorrect way of writing, that is, ins and del cannot be both block-level elements and inline elements at the same time.