The INS element is one of two elements used (the other being
DEL) to allow revision control in
HTML documents. The INS element is nestable and can be used in
conjunction with the DEL element to indicate content and/or markup
which has been inserted after the document's initial creation. A
date stamp is used to mark when the change was made and no destructive
changes are ever made to the document. This is useful in areas such as
the legal profession where historical change information is important.
HTML documents containing revision annotations will contain all content
and markup ever applied to the document. Browsers that can interpret the
DEL and INS elements could possibly display the "current" state
of the document or display all content with common visual cues for inserted
or deleted text. More advanced revision systems could allow for chronological
snapshots of a document at any point in its history.
Description:
Indicates the date and time when the contents were deleted. For more information
on this format, see the ISO8601 document.
Values: CDATA.
ISO Date format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD where:
YYYY = Four-digit year
MM = Two digit month (01-12)
DD = Two digit day of month (01-31)
hh = Two digit hour (00-23, no AM/PM designation is used)
mm = Two digit minutes (00-59)
ss = Two digit seconds (00-59)
TZD = Time zone designator
Compatibility Tip: Older browsers that
do not understand the INS and DEL elements will display all revision
content on-screen without regard to their revision state, even the
"deleted" content. This could be messy. Recommend using this
element only if you can reasonably guarantee that everyone in your audience
has a browser supporting these elements.
DTD Note: The current HTML 4.0 DTD lists INS/DEL
as content only of the BODY element. In light of its potential use,
this seems fairly limiting. I believe these elements should be
usable at least as block level elements (such as BLOCKQUOTE.)
Browser Peculiarities
IE, Mozilla/NS and Opera display inserted content with an underline
underneath the content (as if someone applied U to the same content.)
Internet Explorer 4+ and Opera 4+ do not expose the CITE or DATETIME attributes
to the reader.
IE, Mozilla/NS and Opera do not offer by default any way to control views
of a document based on the state of revisions.
[Test]
INS and DEL can be nested. Because the only visual difference is strike and
underline, only simple nesting will have any visual effect. Nesting INS
within INS, for example, will look no different from a single INS element
occurrence. Nesting INS within DEL however will produce the necessary feedback.
[Test]
The CITE/DATETIME attributes are exposed in Netscape 6.1+ by invoking a
context menu on the element (PC: right clicking) and choosing "properties."