# DEL - Deleted Text

Syntax | <DEL>...</DEL>
Attribute Specifications | CITE=URI (reason for deletion) DATETIME=Datetime (date and time of deletion) common attributes
Contents | Inline elements, block-level elements
Contained in | Inline elements, block-level elements

The DEL element contains content that has been deleted. This element is useful in marking changes from one version of a document to the next. Through style sheets, authors can suggest an appropriate rendering, such as not displaying the deleted content or rendering the text with a strike-through style.

DEL may be used as either a block-level element or an inline element. If used as an inline element (e.g., within a P), then DEL may not contain any block-level elements.

The optional CITE attribute of DEL gives a URI with information on why the content was deleted. A brief explanation for the deletion can be given with the TITLE attribute, which may be rendered as a "tooltip" by some browsers.

The optional DATETIME attribute specifies the date and time of the deletion. The value is case-sensitive and of the form YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss TZD. See the values section for a full explanation of this format.

An example follows:

`<DEL CITE="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/appendix/changes.html#h-A.1.3" DATETIME="1997-12-19T00:00:00-05:00" TITLE="XMP is obsolete"><P>The XMP element contains preformatted text in which markup other than an end tag is treated as literal text.</P></DEL>`

Since DEL is poorly supported among browsers, authors may wish to use a font style element such as STRIKE (deprecated in HTML 4.0) to attempt to convey the meaning of DEL to non-supporting visual browsers. The previous example could also be marked up as follows:

`<DEL CITE="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/appendix/changes.html#h-A.1.3" DATETIME="1997-12-19T00:00:00-05:00" TITLE="XMP is obsolete"><P><STRIKE>The XMP element is used for preformatted text in which markup other than an end tag is treated as literal text.</STRIKE></P></DEL>`

## More Information

- DEL in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation