Q - Short Quotation

The Q element is used for short, inline quotations. For longer (block) quotations, use the BLOCKQUOTE element.

The Q element's optional CITE attribute provides a URI of the source of the quotation. Some examples follow:

<P>In the words of Albert Einstein, <Q>God does <EM>not</EM> play dice.</Q></P>

<P>According to Dave Raggett, <Q CITE="http://www.w3.org/Press/HTML4-REC">HTML 4.0 gives Web designers the ability to create dynamic visually exciting pages that are accessible to all.</Q></P>

Note that authors should not include their own quotation marks when using the Q element. However, this can be a problem since almost all current browsers lack support for Q. Authors may prefer to avoid Q and insert their own quotation marks. Another alternative is to use I in combination with Q so that the quotation is distinguished from other text in most browsers. The previous example could also be given as follows:

<P>According to Dave Raggett, <I><Q CITE="http://www.w3.org/Press/HTML4-REC">HTML 4.0 gives Web designers the ability to create dynamic visually exciting pages that are accessible to all.</Q></I></P>

Browsers supporting Q should properly handle nested quotations. They should also use quotation marks suitable to the language of the quotation, based on the LANG attribute of Q or the language of its parent.

More Information

• Q in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation

Copyright © 1998 by Liam Quinn. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).