contenteditable (attribute)

The contenteditable global attribute is an enumerated attribute indicating if the element should be editable by the user. If so, the browser modifies its widget to allow editing. The attribute must take one of the following values:

• true or the empty string, which indicates that the element must be editable;
• false, which indicates that the element must not be editable.

If this attribute is not set, its default value is inherited from its parent element.

This attribute is an enumerated one and not a Boolean one. This means that the explicit usage of one of the values true, false or the empty string is mandatory and that a shorthand like <label contenteditable>Example Label</label> is not allowed. The correct usage is <label contenteditable="true">Example Label</label>.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of 'contenteditable' in that specification.	Living Standard	No change from latest snapshot, HTML5.1
HTML5.1 The definition of 'contenteditable' in that specification.	Recommendation	Snapshot of WHATWG HTML Living Standard, no change from HTML5
HTML5 The definition of 'contenteditable' in that specification.	Recommendation	Snapshot of WHATWG HTML Living Standard, initial definition.

Browser compatibility

See also

• All global attributes.
• HTMLElement.contentEditable and HTMLElement.isContentEditable