HTML <dialog> Tag

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The <dialog> tag is one of the HTML5 elements. It is used to create a native dialog box, with which the user interacts and performs certain actions. For example, you can create pop-up messages or forms with this element. The dialog box is hidden from view by default. It is activated by the open attribute.

To display/hide the content, we need Javascript API.

If <form> elements are specified with the method="dialog" attribute, they can be combined within a dialog. If such a form is provided, the dialog is closed with the returnValue attribute.

For styling behind the <dialog> element, you can use the CSS ::backdrop pseudo-element.

Syntax

The <dialog> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<dialog>) and closing (</dialog>) tags.

Example of the HTML <dialog> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      dialog {
        width: 40%;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div>
      <dialog id="DialogExample">
        <p>
          Here is some text for example.
        </p>
        <button id="hide">Close dialog text</button>
      </dialog>
      <button id="show">Show dialog text</button>
    </div>
    <script type="text/JavaScript">
      (function() { var dialog = document.getElementById('DialogExample'); document.getElementById('show').onclick = function() { dialog.show(); }; document.getElementById('hide').onclick = function() { dialog.close(); }; })();
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

Attributes

Attribute	Value	Description
open	open	Indicates that the dialog box is active, and the user can interact with it.

The<dialog> tag also supports the Global Attributes and the Event Attributes.

How to style <dialog> tag?

Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in <dialog> tag:

CSS font-style property sets the style of the font. normal | italic | oblique | initial | inherit.
CSS font-family property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.
CSS font-size property sets the size of the font.
CSS font-weight property defines whether the font should be bold or thick.
CSS text-transform property controls text case and capitalization.
CSS text-decoration property specifies the decoration added to text, and is a shorthand property for text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, text-decoration-style.

Coloring text in <dialog> tag:

CSS color property describes the color of the text content and text decorations.
CSS background-color property sets the background color of an element.

Text layout styles for <dialog> tag:

CSS text-indent property specifies the indentation of the first line in a text block.
CSS text-overflow property specifies how overflowed content that is not displayed should be signalled to the user.
CSS white-space property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled.
CSS word-break property specifies where the lines should be broken.

Other properties worth looking at for <dialog> tag:

CSS text-shadow property adds shadow to text.
CSS text-align-last property sets the alignment of the last line of the text.
CSS line-height property specifies the height of a line.
CSS letter-spacing property defines the spaces between letters/characters in a text.
CSS word-spacing property sets the spacing between words.