HTMLdocument

HTMLDocument is a concrete interface in the Document Object Model (DOM) that represents an HTML page. It extends the generic Document interface by adding properties and collections specific to HTML documents. Typical features include access to the document’s root elements, such as document.documentElement, and convenient properties for common sections like document.head and document.body. The interface also exposes HTML-specific collections that map to markup elements, including forms, links, images, anchors, and scripts (for example, document.forms, document.images, document.links, document.anchors).

HTMLDocument is defined in the DOM Level 2 HTML specification and is provided by web browser engines to expose the structure and behavior of loaded HTML documents. In practice, the global document object in JavaScript is the live HTMLDocument (or an object implementing that interface) and is the primary entry point for DOM traversal and manipulation. Standard DOM methods such as getElementById, getElementsByTagName, and querySelector are defined on the base Document interface and work with HTMLDocument as well.

With HTML5 and the HTML Living Standard, the HTMLDocument interface continues to exist as a browser-specific implementation detail of the larger DOM API; modern code typically treats document as a DOM Document with HTML-specific properties, without relying on a separate type. Differences across browsers are generally minor for common operations, though historical inconsistencies have led developers to favor unified DOM methods over older, HTML-only shortcuts.

See also: the Document interface, the HTML Living Standard, and the DOM.