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HTML summary Tag

Reading time 1 min
Published Jun 29, 2017
Updated Oct 11, 2019

HTML summary: Main Tips

  • The HTML summary element defines a summary, caption or legend for given details.
  • By using <summary> tags, you can hide the details and only display the summary. You can then click it to expand/collapse the details as required.
  • The summary tag was introduced in HTML5. However, it is not supported well across all browsers.
  • It supports all global attributes. There are no tag-specific ones.

Using the summary Tag

The HTML5 summary tags are used to surround the summary content for the <details> element:

Example
<details> 
  <summary>Click to reveal fun facts!</summary> 
  <p>A banana is a berry, but a strawberry is not.</p>
  <p>The Amazon rainforest covers 40 percent of South America.</p> 
  <p>Elephants can’t jump.</p> 
</details>

HTML summary should be the first child of the <details> element. It describes a visible heading for the <details>.

Tip: when a table has a complex structure, many columns or rows of data, HTML summary tags can be useful by providing the gist of it.

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Default HTML5 summary Styling

The default HTML summary styling includes display: list-item. This allows you to change the triangle icon to a different one or get rid of it completely:

Example
summary {
    display: list-item;
}

Warning: display: list-item does not work equally well in all browsers.

Browser support

Browser image
Chrome
12+
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Edge
-
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Firefox
49+
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IE
-
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Opera
15+
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Safari
6+

Mobile browser support

Browser image
Chrome
All
Browser image
Firefox
49+
Browser image
Opera
14+
Browser image
Safari
-