Help:HTML in wikitext

This help page is a how-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus.

Shortcuts H:HTML WP:HTML

The MediaWiki software, which drives Wikipedia, allows the use of a subset of HTML 5 elements, or tags and their attributes, for presentation formatting.^[1] However, most HTML functionality can be replicated using equivalent wiki markup or templates. These alternatives are generally preferred within articles because they are often simpler for most editors to use and less intrusive in the editing interface. Wikipedia's Manual of Style recommends when and where these alternatives should be used. (See Help:Wikitext for wikitext equivalents to HTML tags not otherwise discussed below.)

HTML can also be useful outside articles, such as for formatting within templates. For assistance with using Cascading Style Sheets on Wikipedia, see Help:Cascading Style Sheets.

Some tags that resemble HTML are actually MediaWiki parser and extension tags, and so are actually wiki markup. HTML included in pages can be validated for HTML5 compliance by using validation. Note that some elements and attributes supported by MediaWiki and browsers have been deprecated by HTML5 and should no longer be used.