This section contains an alphabetic listing of the tags used by the IPF compiler to create online documents and help windows. An IPF tag controls the format of the displayed output.

The syntax description of each tag includes the tag name, the element that the tag describes, the attributes of the tag, and the end tag. A tag begins with a colon (:) and ends with a period (.). Most tags have an end tag associated with them. An end tag has the same name as the tag, preceded by the letter "e." For example, the end tag for the :userdoc. tag is the :euserdoc. tag.

A tag can have one or more attributes associated with it. An attribute provides additional control information for the tag. Some attributes are followed by an equal sign and a value. If the value contains blanks or special characters, it must be enclosed in apostrophes or single quotation marks. For example:

:font facename='Tms Rmn'.

Notice that the period that ends the tag follows the attributes specified for the tag. If no attributes are specified, the period immediately follows the tag name. For example, when the :note. tag does not have the text=' ' attribute specified, the period immediately follows the word :note..

Some tags are required to be in a specific order before the file can be compiled by the IPF compiler. The following example shows the minimum tags required to compile a file:

:userdoc.
:h1 id=example1.Tag Example 1
:p.This is the first tag example.
:euserdoc.

This section also describes control words used by the IPF compiler. Control words start with a period (.). A control word tells the IPF compiler about the statement that it is part of. For example, the imbed (.im) control word tells the IPF Compiler to include the specified file in the source file at this point.