The HTML Disclosure Summary element (<summary>
) element specifies a summary, caption, or legend for a <details>
element's disclosure box. Clicking the <summary>
element toggles the state of the parent <details>
element open and closed.
Permitted content | Phrasing content or one element of Heading content |
---|---|
Tag omission | None, both the start tag and the end tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | The <details> element. |
Permitted ARIA roles | button |
DOM interface | HTMLElement |
Attributes
This element only includes the global attributes.
Usage notes
The <summary>
element's contents can be any heading content, plain text, or HTML that can be used within a paragraph.
A <summary>
element may only be used as the first child of a <details>
element. When the user clicks on the summary, the parent <details>
element is toggled open or closed, and then a toggle
event is sent to the <details>
element, which can be used to let you know when this state change occurs.
Default label text
If a <details>
element's first child is not a <summary>
element, the user agent will use a default string (typically "Details") as the label for the disclosure box.
Default style
Per the HTML specification, the default style for <summary>
elements includes display: list-item
. This makes it possible to change or remove the icon displayed as the disclosure widget next to the label from the default, which is typically a triangle.
You can also change the style to display: block
to remove the disclosure triangle.
See the Browser compatibility section for details, as not all browsers support full functionality of this element yet.
Examples
Below are some examples showing <summary>
in use. You can find more examples in the documentation for the <details>
element.
Basic example
A simple example showing the use of <summary>
in a <details>
element:
<details open> <summary>Overview</summary> <ol> <li>Cash on hand: $500.00</li> <li>Current invoice: $75.30</li> <li>Due date: 5/6/19</li> </ol> </details>
Summaries as headers
You can use heading elements in <summary>
, liks this:
<details open> <summary><h4>Overview</h4></summary> <ol> <li>Cash on hand: $500.00</li> <li>Current invoice: $75.30</li> <li>Due date: 5/6/19</li> </ol> </details>
This currently has some spacing issues that could be addressed using CSS.
HTML in summaries
This example adds some style to the <summary>
element to made the label bold:
<details open> <summary><strong>Overview</strong></summary> <ol> <li>Cash on hand: $500.00</li> <li>Current invoice: $75.30</li> <li>Due date: 5/6/19</li> </ol> </details>
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living Standard The definition of '<summary>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
HTML 5.1 The definition of '<summary>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
Feature | Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 12 | No1 | 49 | No | No | 6 |
Feature | Android webview | Chrome for Android | Edge mobile | Firefox for Android | IE mobile | Opera Android | iOS Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 4 | Yes | No1 | 49 | No | No | No |
1. In development.