abbr Attribute

Where to use the abbr Attribute

• As Type Text:
  abbr is declared on the elements: th, td

Description

The abbr attribute is used to provide an abbreviation for the contents of a single cell within a table.

This abbreviation may be rendered as the user agent deems appropriate in place of the cell's content. This feature is particularly useful for assistive technology such as screen readers, where (for example) abbreviated header cell information may be spoken before each data cell's contents. It would speed up table use considerably if short yet informative abbreviations could be devised, especially for long or complicated tables.

See also the headers attribute.