Lessons
HTML
- HTML HOME
- HTML Introduction
- HTML Editors
- HTML Basic
- HTML Elements
- HTML Attributes
- HTML Headings
- HTML Paragraphs
- HTML Styles
- HTML Formatting
- HTML Quotations
- HTML Comments
- HTML Colors
- HTML CSS
- HTML Links
- HTML Images
- HTML Tables
- HTML Lists
- HTML Blocks
- HTML Classes
- HTML Id
- HTML Iframes
- HTML JavaScript
- HTML File Paths
- HTML Head
- HTML Layout
- HTML Responsive
- HTML Computercode
- HTML Entities
- HTML Symbols
- HTML Charset
HTML5
HTML Graphics
HTML Media
HTML APIs
HTML Examples
HTML References
- HTML Tag List
- HTML Events
- HTML Colors
- HTML Canvas
- HTML Audio/Video
- HTML Doctypes
- HTML Character Sets
- HTML URL Encode
- HTML Lang Codes
- HTML Messages
- HTML Methods
- PX to Em Converter
- Keyboard Shortcuts
HTML Forms
HTML Entities
HTML Entities
Reserved characters in HTML must be replaced with character entities.
Characters that are not present on your keyboard can also be replaced by entities.
HTML Entities
Some characters are reserved in HTML.
If you use the less than (<) or greater than (>) signs in your text, the browser might mix them with tags.
Character entities are used to display reserved characters in HTML.
A character entity looks like this:
&entity_name;OR
&#entity_number;To display a less than sign (<) we must write: < or <
Advantage of using an entity name: An entity name is easy to remember.
Disadvantage of using an entity name: Browsers may not support all entity names, but the support for numbers is good.
Non-breaking Space
A common character entity used in HTML is the non-breaking space:
A non-breaking space is a space that will not break into a new line.
Two words separated by a non-breaking space will stick together (not break into a new line). This is handy when breaking the words might be disruptive.
Examples:
- ? 10
- 10 km/h
- 10 PM
Another common use of the non-breaking space is to prevent that browsers truncate spaces in HTML pages.
If you write 10 spaces in your text, the browser will remove 9 of them. To add real spaces to your text, you can use the character entity.
The non-breaking hyphen (‑) lets you use a hyphen character (?) that won't break.
Some Other Useful HTML Character Entities
| Result | Description | Entity Name | Entity Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| non-breaking space | |   | |
| < | less than | < | < |
| > | greater than | > | > |
| & | ampersand | & | & |
| " | double quotation mark | " | " |
| ' | single quotation mark (apostrophe) | ' | ' |
| ? | cent | ¢ | ¢ |
| ? | pound | £ | £ |
| ? | yen | ¥ | ¥ |
| ? | euro | € | € |
| ? | copyright | © | © |
| ? | registered trademark | ® | ® |
Note: Entity names are case sensitive.
Combining Diacritical Marks
A diacritical mark is a "glyph" added to a letter.
Some diacritical marks, like grave ( ?) and acute ( ?) are called accents.
Diacritical marks can appear both above and below a letter, inside a letter, and between two letters.
Diacritical marks can be used in combination with alphanumeric characters, to produce a character that is not present in the character set (encoding) used in the page.
Here are some examples:
| Mark | Character | Construct | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| ? | a | à | a? |
| ? | a | á | a? |
| ? | a | â | a? |
| ? | a | ã | a? |
| ? | O | Ò | O? |
| ? | O | Ó | O? |
| ? | O | Ô | O? |
| ? | O | Õ | O? |
You will see more HTML symbols in the next chapter of this tutorial.