HTML Encyclopaedia

The ul tag

The HTML elements

<ul> 
and
</ul>

are used to define an un-numbered list. An un-numbered list consists of a sequence of list elements identified using the <li> tag. Each list element is displayed with a "bullet" or similar graphical symbol at the start of a fresh line.

Un-numbered lists may be nested and different identifying symbols may appear at the start of each line to indicate the levels of nesting.

For every <ul> tag there should be a matching </ul> tag.

Here are some nested un-numbered lists.

List level 1
List level 1 - second item
List level 1 - third item
- List level 2 - first item
- List level 2 - second item
  - List level 3 - first item
  - List level 3 - second item
- List level 2 - third item
  - Second level 3 list - item A
  - Second level 3 list - item B
    - the only item in a level 4 list
- List level 2 - fourth item
List level 1 - last item

Many browsers will use different bullet styles to distinguish the various levels of list when lists are nested in the manner shown above.

The <ul> tag takes the single attribute type

The type attribute to specifies the type of bullet to be used. There are three recognised values of this attribute.

circle
The "bullet" is an open circle as shown in this list
- 1st Item
- 2nd Item
square
The "bullet" is a solid square as shown in this list
- 1st Item
- 2nd Item
disc
The "bullet" is a solid disc as shown in this list
- 1st Item
- 2nd Item

Note Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 does not handle the type attribute correctly, however both Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 handle it correctly.

See also <li>, <dl>, <ol> and the general information about lists