Bodyelementet

The body element, sometimes referred to as bodyelementet in Swedish contexts, is the root container for the content of an HTML document that is rendered in a web browser. It follows the head element and is a child of the html element. A document contains exactly one body element.

Content within the body element is what users see and interact with. It may include text, images, videos, forms, and interactive widgets. The body can also contain semantic sections such as header, nav, main, article, aside, and footer to organize content and improve readability and accessibility.

The body element supports global HTML attributes such as id, class, style, and data- attributes. It also historically supported event handler attributes like onload or onclick, but modern practice favors attaching events through separate JavaScript listeners rather than inline attributes.

Styling the body is common for controlling typography, background, layout, and scrolling behavior. User agents apply default margins and padding to the body, which developers can override with CSS. The body serves as the primary container for the document’s visible content, so its styling often determines the overall look and feel of the page.

Accessibility and semantics are important considerations for the body element. Using landmarks such as header, nav, main, and footer within the body helps assistive technologies provide better navigation and a clearer reading order. The body’s structure should align with the document’s outline and content hierarchy.

Notes: in HTML5, presentational attributes on the body element are deprecated in favor of CSS. The onload event fires after the page and its resources have loaded, while DOMContentLoaded fires once the initial HTML content is parsed.