Optgroup

Option Group Support Key: [2\|3\|3.2\|4] [X1\|X1.1] [IE6\|M\|*N6B1*\|O7]	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
= Index DOT Html by Brian Wilson =

What is it?: The OPTGROUP element allows authors to group selection list choices into a hierarchy. This is particularly helpful to non-visual user agents when large numbers of options are available to choose from. Possible rendering of this element could be a collapsible hierarchy list of OPTION element content or some presentation conveying the hierarchy relationship of the OPTION contents. Browsers not supporting this element will "see" only a traditional flat list of OPTION elements. The LABEL attribute for this element is used to provide shorter labels for the nodes of the hierarchical menus.

Common Attributes
%Core%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE6|M|N6B1|O7]
%Accessibility%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N6|O7]
%Events%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N6B1|O7]
%Language%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N6|O]
Specific Attributes
Disabled
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N6B1|O7]: Standards Details: In all HTML 4.x/XHTML DTDs; Required? No; Description:
This is a stand-alone attribute which indicates the element is initially non-functional. Disabled form elements should not be submitted to the form processing script.; Values: NA (HTML); disabled (XHTML)
Label
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE6|M|N6B1|O7]: Standards Details: In all HTML 4.x/XHTML DTDs; Required? Yes; Description:
This specifies a shorter alternate label for use in identifying the sub-group of options.; Values: CDATA

Example: John and Judy's family tree:
<select name="Familytree">
<option label="Bill" value="bill">Bill Smith </option>
<option label="Mary" value="mary">Mary Smith </option>
<optgroup label="Joe">
    <option value="michael">Michael Smith </option>
    <option value="susan">Susan Smith </option>
    <option value="howard">Howard Smith </option>
</optgroup>
</select>

Tips & Tricks

Browser Peculiarities

[Test] IE6: IE seems to need OPTION elements to be explicitly closed for the OPTGROUP element to work correctly. In HTML though, end tags for OPTION are, well..."optional", so this just seems to be a bug (Note: in XHTML the closing tags are NOT optional.)

Option Group