The <DEL> element specifies that the enclosed text should be regarded as deleted, since the document was originally written. Along with <INS>, it is one of the HTML 4.0 elements used to mark document revisions and is currently only supported by Internet Explorer 4.0. Typically it renders as struck-through text, but any style can be used with the <DEL> element. For example:

Our sales figures <DEL CITE="http://yourcomp.com/procs/salesoffline.proc" DATETIME="1997-06-01T17:53:12+0:00">are no longer available
</DEL>

would be rendered as:

Our sales figures are no longer available

<DEL> supports the following attributes:

CITE="citation"
The CITE attribute should contain a URL, defining a document that specifies the details of the deleted text. For example, an author who deletes text in a document, could use the CITE attribute to specify the URL of a document that explains the removal of the text.

DATETIME="Date/time of insertion"
The DATETIME attribute can be used to specify the date and time that the deletion was made. The DATETIME attribute value is of a specific format, being YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD to specify the year, month, date, hours (using 24-hour clock notation), minutes, seconds and a Time Zone identifier. For example, in the above example, the DATETIME attribute is set to 1997-06-01T17:53:12+0.00, which would mark the deletion at 5.53:12pm on the 6^th January 1997, Greenwich Mean Time, also referencing the source of deletion.

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 <DEL> section.

LANG="language setting"
The LANG attribute can be used to specify what language the <DEL> 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 <DEL> 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 <DEL> element as using a particular style sheet class. See the Style Sheets topic for details.

STYLE="In line style setting"
As well as using previously defined style sheet settings, the <DEL> element can have in-line stylings attached to it. See the Style Sheets topic for details.

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 <DEL> element for scripting purposes. Any <DEL> 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 <DEL> element in a document is an object that can be manipulated through scripting. Note that scripting of the <DEL> element/object is only supported by Internet Explorer 4.0 in its Dynamic HTML object model as Netscape doesn't support the <DEL> element.

<DEL...> Properties
The <DEL...> 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. Additionally, the <DEL> element supports the cite and datetime properties, which directly reflect the CITE and DATETIME attribute values.

<DEL...> Methods
The <DEL...> 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.

<DEL...> Events
The <DEL...> 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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