The Definitive Guide Prev Version 1.0.3. A pointer, verbal or graphical or both, to a component of an illustration or a text object. The processor is not expected to rearrange, select, or suppress any of the elements, but simply present them as specified. A set of declarations that defines the names of the elements and their attributes, and that specifies rules for their combination or sequence.
Elements define the hierarchical structure of a document.
Most elements have start and end tags and contain some part of the document content. Empty elements have only a start tag and have no content. For example, in DocBook, Footnote excludes Footnote . This means that footnotes cannot nest, even though Footnote contains Para , and Footnote occurs in the proper content model of Para . See Section 1.4.2.1 .