What html5 features are already safe to use in a cross browser?

Question

I already use HTML5 Doctype on all my pages. Are there any other html5 specs / features that I can start using right now?

Conditions:

• Cross browser - IE6 support optional, but specify
• No hacks, please [javascript or otherwise]
• its quite acceptable if the function wears out gracefully in older browsers

Answer 1

Some types of HTML5 input should be noted. As far as I know, any browser that does not recognize the type of the input element defaults to type="text" . The added value is minimal, but worth understanding.

On devices running the iPhone OS, for example, an element such as:

<p><label>Telephone: <input type=tel></label></p>

or,

<p><label>Email address: <input type=email></label></p>

will create a suitable keyboard, giving importance to the characters that are often needed in the corresponding input .

Given the tremendous importance of semantic and user experience and graceful degradation, I accepted this at production sites without prejudice. In some cases, especially with mixed doctypes , you may lose the test, but this can be expected during the transition period and the sacrifice I am willing to accept.

A lot of useful information about the W3C website regarding updated elements and form specifications.

Answer 2

If IE7 is your lowest supported browser requirement, none (since it came out long before anyone reviewed HTML5, ignore Microsoft).

Quirksmode has a feature accessibility chart: http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/html5.html

Answer 3

Depends on what you consider the “HTML5 feature”. Many of the "new" features in HTML5 are actually reversed from IE. insertAdjacentHTML , for example, is supported in IE4 +. Even innerHTML can be thought of as an HTML5 function, as it has never been standard before. On the other hand, functions specifically developed in HTML5, such as section and <input type=tel> , are unlikely to be implemented in IE7.

(Also note that IE7 was released in late 2006, and work on HTML5 began in 2004.)

Answer 4

There are several because, as ms2ger points out, many of the “new features” are actually old IE features:

• Block Levels
• Content is being edited.
• Drag and drop
• Xhr

I take HTML5 to refer to the “specs created in WHATWG” and not the “stuff in the HTML5 specs”, since everyone else seems to be the same. And, yes, this last one is probably cheating;)