Attributes Attributes allow variety in how an element describes content or works. Attributes let you use elements differently depending on circumstances. For example, the <img /> element uses the src attribute to specify the location of the image you want to include on your page: <img src=”images/header.gif” alt=”header graphic” width=”794” height=”160” /> In this bit of HTML, the <img /> element itself is a general flag to the browser that you want to include an image; the src attribute provides the specifics on the image you want to include — header.gif in this instance. Other attributes (such as width and height) provide information about how to display that image, while the alt attribute provides a text alternative to the image that a text-only browser can display (or a text-to-speech reader can read aloud, for the visually impaired). Chapter 7 describes the <img /> element and its attributes in detail. You include attributes within the start tag of the element you want them with — after the element name but before the ending sign, like this: <tag attribute=”value” attribute=”value”> XML syntax rules decree that attribute values must always appear in quotation marks, but you can include the attributes and their values in any order within the start tag or within a single tag.