: The Directory element

{{Deprecated_Header}}

The <dir> HTML element is used as a container for a directory of files and/or folders, potentially with styles and icons applied by the {{Glossary("user agent")}}. Do not use this obsolete element; instead, you should use the {{HTMLElement("ul")}} element for lists, including lists of files.

[!WARNING] Do not use this element. Though present in early HTML specifications, it has been deprecated in HTML 4, and has since been removed entirely.

DOM interface

This element implements the {{domxref("HTMLDirectoryElement")}} interface.

Attributes

Like all other HTML elements, this element supports the global attributes.

• compact {{Deprecated_Inline}}
  • : This Boolean attribute hints that the list should be rendered in a compact style. The interpretation of this attribute depends on the user agent and it doesn't work in all browsers.

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Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• Other list-related HTML Elements: {{HTMLElement("ol")}}, {{HTMLElement("ul")}}, {{HTMLElement("li")}}, and {{HTMLElement("menu")}};
• CSS properties that may be specially useful to style the <dir> element:
  • The {{cssxref('list-style')}} property, useful to choose the way the ordinal is displayed.
  • CSS counters, useful to handle complex nested lists.
  • The {{Cssxref('line-height')}} property, useful to simulate the deprecated compact attribute.
  • The {{cssxref('margin')}} property, useful to control the indent of the list.