document Object

Represents the HTML document in a specific window.

Members Table

The following table lists the members exposed by the document object.

Attribute	Property	Description
	activeElement	Gets the object that has the focus when the parent document has focus.
	alinkColor	Sets or gets the color of all active links in the document.
	bgColor	Deprecated. Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the background color behind the object.
	characterSet	Gets the name of the character set that is used to encode the document.
CHARSET	charset	Gets or sets the character set used to encode the object.
	compatible	Retrieves the collection of user agents and versions declared in the X-UA-Compatible
	compatMode	Gets a value that indicates whether standards-compliant mode is switched on for the object.
	constructor	Returns a reference to the constructor of an object.
	cookie	Sets or gets the string value of a cookie.
	defaultCharset	Gets the default character set from the current regional language settings.
	defaultView	Gets a reference to the window object for the document.
	designMode	Sets or gets a value that indicates whether the document can be edited.
	dir	Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the reading order of the object.
	doctype	Gets an object that represents the document type declaration that is associated with the current document.
	documentElement	Gets a reference to the root node of the document.
	documentMode	Retrieves the document compatibility mode of the document.
	domain	Sets or gets the security domain of the document.
	expando	Gets or sets a value indicating whether arbitrary variables can be created within the object.
	fgColor	Sets or gets the foreground (text) color of the document.
	fileCreatedDate	Retrieves the date the file was created.
	fileModifiedDate	Retrieves the date the file was last modified.
	fileSize	Retrieves the file size.
	head	Gets the head element of the document.
	implementation	Gets the implementation object of the current document.
	inputEncoding	Gets the character encoding that is used for the text that is loaded into the document object.
	lastModified	Gets the date that the document was last modified, if the document supplies one.
	linkColor	Sets or gets the color of the document links.
	localName	Retrieves the local name of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
	namespaceURI	Retrieves the namespace Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
	parentWindow	Gets a reference to the container object of the window.
	prefix	Retrieves the local name of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
	protocol	Sets or retrieves the protocol portion of a URL.
	readyState	Retrieves a value that indicates the current state of the object.
	referrer	Gets the URL of the location that referred the user to the current document.
	rootElement	Gets the root svg element in the document hierarchy.
	textContent	Sets or retrieves the text content of an object and any child objects.
	uniqueID	Retrieves an autogenerated, unique identifier for the object.
	URL	Sets or gets the URL for the current document.
	URLUnencoded	Gets the URL for the document, stripped of any character encoding.
	vlinkColor	Sets or gets the color of the links that the user has visited.
	xmlEncoding	Gets a value that represents the character encoding that is specified in the declaration of an XML document.
	xmlStandalone	Gets or sets the value of the standalone attribute in the declaration of an XML document.
	xmlVersion	Gets or sets the version attribute that is specified in the declaration of an XML document.
	XSLDocument	Retrieves a reference to the top-level node of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) document.

Collection	Description
all	Returns a reference to the collection of elements contained by the object.
anchors	Retrieves a collection of all a objects that have a name and/or id property. Objects in this collection are in HTML source order.
applets	Retrieves a collection of all applet objects in the document.
childNodes	Retrieves a collection of HTML Elements and TextNode objects that are direct descendants of the specified object.
embeds	Retrieves a collection of all embed objects in the document.
forms	Retrieves a collection, in source order, of all form objects in the document.
frames	Retrieves a collection of all window objects defined by the given document or defined by the document associated with the given window.
images	Retrieves a collection, in source order, of img objects in the document.
links	Retrieves a collection of all a objects that specify the href property and all area objects in the document.
namespaces	Retrieves a collection of namespace objects.
scripts	Retrieves a collection of all script objects in the document.
styleSheets	Retrieves a collection of styleSheet objects representing the style sheets that correspond to each instance of a link or style object in the document.

Event	Event Property	Description
abort	onabort	Fires when the user aborts the download.
	onactivate	Fires when the object is set as the active element.
	onbeforeactivate	Fires immediately before the object is set as the active element.
	onbeforedeactivate	Fires immediately before the activeElement is changed from the current object to another object in the parent document.
	onbeforeeditfocus	Fires before an object contained in an editable element enters a UI-activated state or when an editable container object is control selected.
blur	onblur	Fires when the object loses the input focus.
canplay	oncanplay	Occurs when playback is possible, but would require further buffering.
canplaythrough	oncanplaythrough	Occurs when playback to end is possible without requiring a stop for further buffering.
	oncellchange	Fires when data changes in the data provider.
change	onchange	Fires when the contents of the object or selection have changed.
click	onclick	Fires when the user clicks the left mouse button on the object.
contextmenu	oncontextmenu	Fires when the user clicks the right mouse button in the client area, opening the context menu.
	oncontrolselect	Fires when the user is about to make a control selection of the object.
	ondataavailable	Fires periodically as data arrives from data source objects that asynchronously transmit their data.
	ondatasetchanged	Fires when the data set exposed by a data source object changes.
	ondatasetcomplete	Fires to indicate that all data is available from the data source object.
dblclick	ondblclick	Fires when the user double-clicks the object.
	ondeactivate	Fires when the activeElement is changed from the current object to another object in the parent document.
drag	ondrag	Fires on the source object continuously during a drag operation.
dragend	ondragend	Fires on the source object when the user releases the mouse at the close of a drag operation.
dragenter	ondragenter	Fires on the target element when the user drags the object to a valid drop target.
dragleave	ondragleave	Fires on the target object when the user moves the mouse out of a valid drop target during a drag operation.
dragover	ondragover	Fires on the target element continuously while the user drags the object over a valid drop target.
dragstart	ondragstart	Fires on the source object when the user starts to drag a text selection or selected object.
drop	ondrop	Fires on the target object when the mouse button is released during a drag-and-drop operation.
durationchange	ondurationchange	Occurs when the duration attribute is updated.
emptied	onemptied	Occurs when the media element is reset to its initial state.
ended	onended	Occurs when the end of playback is reached.
error	onerror	Fires when an error occurs during object loading.
	onerrorupdate	Fires on a databound object when an error occurs while updating the associated data in the data source object.
focus	onfocus	Fires when the object receives focus.
focusin	onfocusin	Fires for an element just prior to setting focus on that element.
focusout	onfocusout	Fires for the current element with focus immediately after moving focus to another element.
	onhelp	Fires when the user presses the F1 key while the client is the active window.
input	oninput	Occurs when the text content of an element is changed through the user interface.
keydown	onkeydown	Fires when the user presses a key.
keypress	onkeypress	Fires when the user presses an alphanumeric key.
keyup	onkeyup	Fires when the user releases a key.
load	onload	Fires immediately after the client loads the object.
loadeddata	onloadeddata	Occurs when media data is loaded at the current playback position.
loadedmetadata	onloadedmetadata	Occurs when the duration and dimensions of the media have been determined.
loadstart	onloadstart	Occurs when Internet Explorer begins looking for media data.
mousedown	onmousedown	Fires when the user clicks the object with either mouse button.
mousemove	onmousemove	Fires when the user moves the mouse over the object.
mouseout	onmouseout	Fires when the user moves the mouse pointer outside the boundaries of the object.
mouseover	onmouseover	Fires when the user moves the mouse pointer into the object.
mouseup	onmouseup	Fires when the user releases a mouse button while the mouse is over the object.
mousewheel	onmousewheel	Fires when the wheel button is rotated.
mssitemodejumplistitemremoved	onmssitemodejumplistitemremoved	Occurs when msSiteModeShowJumpList is called, and an item has been removed from a Jump List by the user.
msthumbnailclick	onmsthumbnailclick	Occurs when a user clicks a button in a Thumbnail Toolbar.
pause	onpause	Occurs when playback is paused.
play	onplay	Occurs when the play method is requested.
playing	onplaying	Occurs when the audio or video has started playing.
progress	onprogress	Occurs to indicate progress while downloading media data.
	onpropertychange	Fires when a property changes on the object.
ratechange	onratechange	Occurs when the playback rate is increased or decreased.
readystatechange	onreadystatechange	Fires when the state of the object has changed.
	onreset	Fires when the user resets a form.
	onrowenter	Fires to indicate that the current row has changed in the data source and new data values are available on the object.
	onrowexit	Fires just before the data source control changes the current row in the object.
	onrowsdelete	Fires when rows are about to be deleted from the recordset.
	onrowsinserted	Fires just after new rows are inserted in the current recordset.
scroll	onscroll	Fires when the user repositions the scroll box in the scroll bar on the object.
seeked	onseeked	Occurs when the seek operation ends.
seeking	onseeking	Occurs when the current playback position is moved.
select	onselect	Fires when the current selection changes.
	onselectionchange	Fires when the selection state of a document changes.
stalled	onstalled	Occurs when the download has stopped.
	onstop	Fires when the user clicks the Stop button or leaves the document.
storage	onstorage	Fires when a Web Storage area is updated.
	onstoragecommit	Fires when a local Web Storage area is written to disk.
suspend	onsuspend	Occurs if the load operation has been intentionally halted.
timeupdate	ontimeupdate	Occurs to indicate the current playback position.
volumechange	onvolumechange	Occurs when the volume is changed, or playback is muted or unmuted.
waiting	onwaiting	Occurs when playback stops because the next frame of a video resource is not available.

Method	Description
addEventListener	Registers an event handler for the specified event type.
adoptNode	Tries to move a node from one document to the document that the document object displays.
attachEvent	Binds the specified function to an event, so that the function gets called whenever the event fires on the object.
clear	Not supported.
close	Closes an output stream and forces the sent data to display.
compareDocumentPosition	Compares the position of two nodes in a document.
createAttribute	Creates an attribute object with a specified name.
createAttributeNS	Creates a reference to an attribute object that is associated with an XML namespace.
createCDATASection	Creates a CDATA section that contains the specified text.
createComment	Creates a comment object with the specified data.
createDocumentFragment	Creates a new document.
createElement	Creates an instance of the element for the specified tag.
createElementNS	Creates an element from the specified namespace.
createEvent	Creates a Document Object Model (DOM) event of the specified type.
createEventObject	Generates an event object to pass event context information when you use the fireEvent method.
createNodeIterator	Creates a NodeIterator object that you can use to traverse filtered lists of nodes or elements in a document.
createProcessingInstruction	Creates a processing instruction for an XML parser.
createRange	Returns an empty range object that has both of its boundary points positioned at the beginning of the document.
createStyleSheet	Creates a style sheet for the document.
createTextNode	Creates a text string from the specified value.
createTreeWalker	Creates a TreeWalker object that you can use to traverse filtered lists of nodes or elements in a document.
detachEvent	Unbinds the specified function from the event, so that the function stops receiving notifications when the event fires.
dispatchEvent	Sends an event to the current element.
elementFromPoint	Returns the element for the specified x coordinate and the specified y coordinate.
execCommand	Executes a command on the current document, current selection, or the given range.
execCommandShowHelp	Displays help information for the given command identifier.
focus	Causes the element to receive the focus and executes the code specified by the onfocus event.
getElementById	Returns a reference to the first object with the specified value of the ID or NAME attribute.
getElementsByName	Gets a collection of objects based on the value of the NAME or ID attribute.
getElementsByTagName	Retrieves a collection of objects based on the specified element name.
getElementsByTagNameNS	Gets a collection of nodes that match an element name from the specified namespace.
getSelection	Returns an object that represents the current selection of the document.
hasFocus	Gets a value indicating whether the object currently has focus.
importNode	Imports a node from another document into the the document that the document object displays.
isDefaultNamespace	Indicates whether or not a namespace is the default namespace for a document.
isEqualNode	Determines if two nodes are equal.
isSameNode	Determines if two node references refer to the same node.
isSupported	Returns a value indicating whether or not the object supports a specific DOM standard.
lookupNamespaceURI	Gets the URI of the namespace associated with a namespace prefix, if any.
lookupPrefix	Gets the namespace prefix associated with a URI, if any.
normalize	Merges adjacent DOM objects to produce a normalized document object model.
open	Opens a new window and loads a document specified by a given URL. Also, opens a new window that uses the url parameter and the name parameter to collect the output of the write method and the writeln method.
queryCommandEnabled	Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether a specified command can be successfully executed using execCommand, given the current state of the document.
queryCommandIndeterm	Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the specified command is in the indeterminate state.
queryCommandState	Returns a Boolean value that indicates the current state of the command.
queryCommandSupported	Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the current command is supported on the current range.
queryCommandText	Retrieves the string associated with a command.
queryCommandValue	Returns the current value of the document, range, or current selection for the given command.
querySelector	Retrieves the first DOM element node from descendants of the starting element node that match any selector within the supplied selector string.
querySelectorAll	Retrieves all DOM element nodes from descendants of the starting element node that match any selector within the supplied selector strings.
recalc	Recalculates all dynamic properties in the current document.
releaseCapture	Removes mouse capture from the object in the current document.
removeEventListener	Removes an event handler that the addEventListener method registered.
updateSettings	Allows updating the print settings for the page.
write	Writes one or more HTML expressions to a document in the specified window.
writeln	Writes one or more HTML expressions, followed by a carriage return, to a document in the specified window.

Element	Object	Description
BODY	body	Specifies the beginning and end of the document body.
	HTMLSelection	Represents the active selection, which is typically a highlighted block of text or other elements in the document. The active selection can be used to complete an action issued by a user or a script.
	implementation	Contains information about the modules supported by the object.
	location	Contains information about the current URL.
	selection	Represents the active selection, which is a highlighted block of text or other elements in the document that a user or a script can carry out some action on.
TITLE	title	Contains the title of the document.

Object	Description
HTMLCollection Constructor	Defines the properties and methods inherited by objects in the HTMLCollection Constructor prototype chain.
HTMLDocument Constructor	Defines the properties and methods inherited by objects in the HTMLDocument Constructor prototype chain.

Remarks

Use the document object to examine, modify, or add content to an HTML document and to process events within that document. In a script , the document object can be referenced through the document property of the window object or it can be referenced directly.

The ondocumentready event notifies Dynamic HTML (DHTML) behaviors that the document object is available from the primary document containing the behavior. After ondocumentready has fired, a behavior can begin to manipulate the primary document object.

The document object is available at all times in the primary document, but it does not exist for the HTML Component (HTC) files used in lightweight DHTML behaviors. This is because lightweight behaviors can be defined only if they do not use a document object in the HTC file. As a result, lightweight behaviors run faster and more efficiently than normal behaviors. Lightweight DHTML behaviors can, however, access the document object of the primary document in the same way as normal DHTML behaviors.

It is possible for the script in a behavior to reference the document object in the HTC file or the primary document. When coding script in an HTC file, use element. document to refer to the document object in the primary document.

Examples

This example uses the document object to check for a document title and displays the title (if not null) in a message box.

if (document.title!="")
    alert("The title is " + document.title)

This example shows an event handler function that displays the current position of the mouse, relative to the upper-left corner of the document, in the status window.

<HTML>
<head><title>Report mouse moves</title>
<script>
function reportMove()
{
    window.status = "X=" + window.event.x + " Y=" + window.event.y;
}
</script>
</head>
<body onmousemove="reportMove()">  
<h1>Welcome!</h1>
</body>
</html>

Standards Information

This object is defined in DOM Level 1.

Applies To

CUSTOM, window