Sams Teach Yourself HTML, CSS & JavaScript Web Publishing in One Hour a Day

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Using the <label> Tag 323

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as the page’s character set. The only time you will ever need to use these attributes is when
your form includes a file upload field (discussed a bit later) or you expect to receive data in a
different language or character set than the page. If you’re going to request a file upload, you
need to specify that the enctype is multipart/form-data. Otherwise, it’s fine to leave them
out.

That about does it for the

tag, but you’ve really only just begun. The
tag alone is just a container for the input fields that are used to gather data from users.
It indicates where the data should go and how it should be packaged. To actually gather
information, you’re going to need items called form controls.

Using the Tag

Whenever you enter text that describes a form field, you should use the tag
and use the for attribute to tie it to the control it labels. To create a label, begin with the
opening label tag and then enter the for attribute. The value for this attribute, when
present, must match the id or name attribute for the control it labels. Next, enter text that
will serve as the label and then close the element with the end label tag, as in the fol-
lowing:

Input ▼

Who is your favorite NFL Quarterback?

Figure 12.5 shows this text control with a label assigned to it.

Output ▼

FIGURE 12.5
You can assign
labels to any form
control.

▼

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Sams Teach Yourself HTML, CSS & JavaScript Web Publishing in One Hour a Day

Using the Tag

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