The Document Object

The document object is the root node of the HTML document.

Document Object Properties and Methods

The following properties and methods can be used on HTML documents:

Property / Method

Description

activeElement

Returns the currently focused element in the document

addEventListener()

Attaches an event handler to the document

adoptNode()

Adopts a node from another document

anchors

Returns a collection of all <a> elements in the document that have a name attribute

applets

Returns a collection of all <applet> elements in the document

baseURI

Returns the absolute base URI of a document

body

Sets or returns the document's body (the <body> element)

close()

Closes the output stream previously opened with document.open()

cookie

Returns all name/value pairs of cookies in the document

charset

Deprecated. Use characterSet instead. Returns the character encoding for the document

characterSet

Returns the character encoding for the document

createAttribute()

Creates an attribute node

createComment()

Creates a Comment node with the specified text

createDocumentFragment()

Creates an empty DocumentFragment node

createElement()

Creates an Element node

createEvent()

Creates a new event

createTextNode()

Creates a Text node

defaultView

Returns the window object associated with a document, or null if none is available.

designMode

Controls whether the entire document should be editable or not.

doctype

Returns the Document Type Declaration associated with the document

documentElement

Returns the Document Element of the document (the <html> element)

documentMode

Returns the mode used by the browser to render the document

documentURI

Sets or returns the location of the document

domain

Returns the domain name of the server that loaded the document

domConfig

Obsolete. Returns the DOM configuration of the document

embeds

Returns a collection of all <embed> elements the document

execCommand()

Invokes the specified clipboard operation on the element currently having focus.

forms

Returns a collection of all <form> elements in the document

fullscreenElement

Returns the current element that is displayed in fullscreen mode

fullscreenEnabled()

Returns a Boolean value indicating whether the document can be viewed in fullscreen mode

getElementById()

Returns the element that has the ID attribute with the specified value

getElementsByClassName()

Returns a HTMLCollection containing all elements with the specified class name

getElementsByName()

Returns a HTMLCollection containing all elements with a specified name

getElementsByTagName()

Returns a HTMLCollection containing all elements with the specified tag name

hasFocus()

Returns a Boolean value indicating whether the document has focus

head

Returns the <head> element of the document

images

Returns a collection of all <img> elements in the document

implementation

Returns the DOMImplementation object that handles this document

importNode()

Imports a node from another document

inputEncoding

Returns the encoding, character set, used for the document

lastModified

Returns the date and time the document was last modified

links

Returns a collection of all <a> and <area> elements in the document that have a href attribute

normalize()

Removes empty Text nodes, and joins adjacent nodes

normalizeDocument()

Removes empty Text nodes, and joins adjacent nodes

open()

Opens an HTML output stream to collect output from document.write()

querySelector()

Returns the first element that matches a specified CSS selector(s) in the document

querySelectorAll()

Returns a static NodeList containing all elements that matches a specified CSS selector(s) in the document

readyState

Returns the (loading) status of the document

referrer

Returns the URL of the document that loaded the current document

removeEventListener()

Removes an event handler from the document (that has been attached with the addEventListener() method)

renameNode()

Renames the specified node

scripts

Returns a collection of <script> elements in the document

strictErrorChecking

Sets or returns whether error-checking is enforced or not

title

Sets or returns the title of the document

URL

Returns the full URL of the HTML document

write()

Writes HTML expressions or JavaScript code to a document

writeln()

Same as write(), but adds a newline character after each statement

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