Document

Para cada página carregada no browser, existe um objeto Document. A interface Document serve como um ponto de entrada para o conteúdo da Página ( a árvore DOM, incluindo elementos como <body> e <table>) e provê funcionalidades globais ao documento (como obter a URL da página e criar novos elementos no documento).

Um objeto document pode ser obtido por meio de várias APIs:

A mais comum; você trabalha com o script do documento que está rodando o script com o objeto document. (O mesmo document também pode ser referenciado como window.document.)
O documento de um iframe através da propriedade contentDocument.
O responseXML de um objeto XMLHttpRequest.
O documento ao qual um determinado node ou elemento pertence pode ser recuperado usando a propriedade do node ownerDocument (en-US)

Dependendo do tipo do documento (e.g. HTML ou XML (en-US)), diferentes APIs estarão disponívels no objeto Document.

Todo objeto Document implementa a interface Document (e consequentemente as interfaces Node e EventTarget). Portanto, as principais propriedades e métodos documentados nesta página estarão disponíveis para todos os tipos de documents.

Em navegadores mais atuais, alguns documentos (ex: aqueles que são servidos com o Content-Type text/html) também implementam a interface HTMLDocument (en-US).
Em navegadores mais atuais, documentos SVG implementam a interface SVGDocument.

No futuro, todas essas interfaces irão ser divididas na interface Document.

Propriedades

Nota: A interface Document também herda das interfaces Node e EventTarget.

Document.all (en-US) Deprecated Non-standard: Da acesso a todos os elementos do documento.È uma interface legada não padrão, voce deve usar o método Document.getElementById() como alternativa.
Document.async Deprecated: Usado como document.load que indica uma requisição asyncroma.
Document.characterSet Experimental: Retorna a codificação de caracteres que está sendo usado pelo documento.
Document.compatMode Experimental: indica se o documento é renderizado no modo Quirks ou Strict.
Document.contentType Experimental: Retorna o tipo de conteúdo do cabeçalho MIME do documento atual.
Document.doctype: Retorna o nome do tipo de conteudo do documento HTML.
Document.documentElement: Returns the Element that is a direct child of the document. For HTML documents, this is normally the HTML element.
Document.documentURI: Returns the document URL.
Document.domConfig (en-US) Deprecated: Should return a DOMConfiguration object.
Document.implementation: Returns the DOM implementation associated with the current document.
Document.inputEncoding (en-US) Deprecated: Returns the encoding used when the document was parsed.
Document.lastStyleSheetSet (en-US): Returns the name of the style sheet set that was last enabled. Has the value null until the style sheet is changed by setting the value of selectedStyleSheetSet (en-US).
Document.mozSyntheticDocument (en-US) Non-standard: true if this document is synthetic, such as a standalone image, video, audio file, or the like.
Document.mozFullScreen (en-US) Non-standard: true when the document is in full-screen mode.
Document.mozFullScreenElement (en-US) Non-standard: The element that's currently in full screen mode for this document.
Document.mozFullScreenEnabled (en-US) Non-standard: true if calling element.mozRequestFullscreen() (en-US) would succeed in the curent document.
Document.pointerLockElement (en-US) Experimental: Returns the element set as the target for mouse events while the pointer is locked. null if lock is pending, pointer is unlocked, or if the target is in another document.
Document.preferredStyleSheetSet (en-US): Returns the preferred style sheet set as specified by the page author.
Document.selectedStyleSheetSet (en-US): Returns which style sheet set is currently in use.
Document.styleSheets (en-US): Returns a list of the style sheet objects on the current document.
Document.styleSheetSets (en-US): Returns a list of the style sheet sets available on the document.
Document.xmlEncoding (en-US) Deprecated: Returns the encoding as determined by the XML declaration.
Document.xmlStandalone: Returns true if the XML declaration specifies the document to be standalone (e.g., An external part of the DTD affects the document's content), else false.
Document.xmlVersion (en-US): Returns the version number as specified in the XML declaration or "1.0" if the declaration is absent.

The Document interface is extended with the ParentNode interface:

Extension for HTML documents

The Document interface for HTML documents inherit from the HTMLDocument (en-US) interface or, since HTML5, is extended for such documents:

Document.activeElement: Returns the currently focused element.
Document.alinkColor Deprecated: Returns or sets the color of active links in the document body.
Document.anchors: Returns a list of all of the anchors in the document.
Document.applets (en-US) Deprecated: Returns an ordered list of the applets within a document.
Document.bgColor Deprecated: Gets/sets the background color of the current document.
Document.body: Returns the <body> element of the current document.
Document.cookie (en-US): Returns a semicolon-separated list of the cookies for that document or sets a single cookie.
Document.defaultView: Returns a reference to the window object.
Document.designMode: Gets/sets the ability to edit the whole document.
Document.dir (en-US): Gets/sets directionality (rtl/ltr) of the document.
Document.domain (en-US): Returns the domain of the current document.
Document.embeds (en-US): Returns a list of the embedded <embed> elements within the current document.
Document.fgColor (en-US) Deprecated: Gets/sets the foreground color, or text color, of the current document.
Document.forms (en-US): Returns a list of the <form> (en-US) elements within the current document.
Document.head: Returns the <head> element of the current document.
Document.height Non-standard: Gets/sets the height of the current document.
Document.images: Returns a list of the images in the current document.
Document.lastModified (en-US): Returns the date on which the document was last modified.
Document.linkColor (en-US) Deprecated: Gets/sets the color of hyperlinks in the document.
Document.links (en-US): Returns a list of all the hyperlinks in the document.
Document.location: Returns the URI of the current document.
Document.plugins (en-US): Returns a list of the available plugins.
Document.readyState: Returns loading status of the document.
Document.referrer: Returns the URI of the page that linked to this page.
Document.scripts: Returns all the <script> elements on the document.
Document.title (en-US): Returns the title of the current document.
Document.URL: Returns a string containing the URL of the current document.
Document.vlinkColor (en-US) Deprecated: Gets/sets the color of visited hyperlinks.
Document.width (en-US) Non-standard: Returns the width of the current document.

Event handlers

Document.onpointerlockchange Experimental: Returns the event handling code for the pointerlockchange (en-US) event.
Document.onpointerlockerror Experimental: Returns the event handling code for the pointerlockerror (en-US) event.
Document.onreadystatechange: Returns the event handling code for the readystatechange event.

Methods

Nota: The Document interface also inherits from the Node and EventTarget interfaces.

Document.adoptNode(Node node) (en-US): Adopt node from an external document.
Document.captureEvents(String eventName) Deprecated: See window.captureEvents (en-US).
Document.caretPositionFromPoint(Number x, Number y) (en-US): Gets a CaretPosition (en-US) based on two coordinates.
Document.createAttribute(String name) (en-US): Creates a new Attr object and returns it.
Document.createAttributeNS(String namespace, String name) (en-US): Creates a new attribute node in a given namespace and returns it.
Document.createCDATASection(String data) (en-US): Creates a new CDATA node and returns it.
Document.createComment(String comment) (en-US): Creates a new comment node and returns it.
Document.createDocumentFragment() (en-US): Creates a new document fragment.
Document.createElement(String name): Creates a new element with the given tag name.
Document.createElementNS(String namespace, String name): Creates a new element with the given tag name and namespace URI.
Document.createEntityReference(String name) (en-US): Creates a new entity reference object and returns it.
Document.createEvent(String interface) (en-US): Creates an event object.
Document.createNodeIterator(Node root[, Number whatToShow[, NodeFilter filter]]): Creates a NodeIterator (en-US) object.
Document.createProcessingInstruction(String target, String data) (en-US): Creates a new ProcessingInstruction object.
Document.createRange() (en-US): Creates a Range (en-US) object.
Document.createTextNode(String text) (en-US): Creates a text node.
Document.createTreeWalker(Node root[, Number whatToShow[, NodeFilter filter]]) (en-US): Creates a TreeWalker (en-US) object.
Document.elementFromPoint(Number x, Number y): Returns the element visible at the specified coordinates.
Document.enableStyleSheetsForSet(String name) (en-US): Enables the style sheets for the specified style sheet set.
Document.exitPointerLock() (en-US) Experimental: Release the pointer lock.
Document.getElementsByClassName(String className): Returns a list of elements with the given class name.
Document.getElementsByTagName(String tagName) (en-US): Returns a list of elements with the given tag name.
Document.getElementsByTagNameNS(String namespace, String tagName) (en-US): Returns a list of elements with the given tag name and namespace.
Document.importNode(Node node, Boolean deep): Returns a clone of a node from an external document.
document.mozSetImageElement (en-US) Non-standard: Allows you to change the element being used as the background image for a specified element ID.
Document.normalizeDocument(): Replaces entities, normalizes text nodes, etc.
Document.releaseCapture() (en-US) Non-standard: Releases the current mouse capture if it's on an element in this document.
Document.releaseEvents Non-standard Deprecated: See window.releaseEvents (en-US).
document.routeEvent Non-standard: See window.routeEvent.

The Document interface is extended with the ParentNode interface:

Document.getElementById(String id): Returns an object reference to the identified element.
Document.querySelector(String selector): Returns the first Element node within the document, in document order, that matches the specified selectors.
Document.querySelectorAll(String selector): Returns a list of all the Element nodes within the document that match the specified selectors.

The Document interface is extended with the XPathEvaluator (en-US) interface:

Document.createExpression(String expression, XPathNSResolver resolver) (en-US): Compiles an XPathExpression (en-US) which can then be used for (repeated) evaluations.
Document.createNSResolver(Node resolver) (en-US): Creates an XPathNSResolver (en-US) object.
Document.evaluate(String expression, Node contextNode, XPathNSResolver resolver, Number type, Object result) (en-US): Evaluates an XPath expression.

Extension for HTML documents

The Document interface for HTML documents inherit from the HTMLDocument (en-US) interface or, since HTML5, is extended for such documents:

Document.clear() (en-US) Non-standard Deprecated: In majority of modern browsers, including recent versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer, this method does nothing.
Document.close(): Closes a document stream for writing.
Document.execCommand(String command[, Boolean showUI[, String value]]): On an editable document, executes a formating command.
Document.getElementsByName(String name): Returns a list of elements with the given name.
Document.getSelection(): Returns a Selection object related to text selected in the document.
Document.hasFocus(): Returns true if the focus is currently located anywhere inside the specified document.
Document.open() (en-US): Opens a document stream for writing.
Document.queryCommandEnabled(String command) (en-US): Returns true if the formating command can be executed on the current range.
Document.queryCommandIndeterm(String command): Returns true if the formating command is in an indeterminate state on the current range.
Document.queryCommandState(String command) (en-US): Returns true if the formating command has been executed on the current range.
Document.queryCommandSupported(String command) (en-US): Returns true if the formating command is supported on the current range.
Document.queryCommandValue(String command): Returns the current value of the current range for a formatting command.
Document.registerElement(String tagname[, Object options]): Registers a new custom element in the browser and returns a constructor for the new element.
Document.write(String text): Writes text in a document.
Document.writeln(String text): Writes a line of text in a document.

Specifications

Specification
DOM Standard # interface-document
HTML Standard # the-document-object
CSSOM View Module # extensions-to-the-document-interface
Pointer Lock 2.0 # extensions-to-the-document-interface
Selection API # extensions-to-document-interface

Compatibilidade com navegadores

Firefox notes

Mozilla defines a set of non-standard properties made only for XUL content:

document.currentScript: Returns the <script> element that is currently executing.
document.documentURIObject: (Mozilla add-ons only!) Returns the nsIURI object representing the URI of the document. This property only has special meaning in privileged JavaScript code (with UniversalXPConnect privileges).
document.popupNode: Returns the node upon which a popup was invoked.
document.tooltipNode: Returns the node which is the target of the current tooltip.

Mozilla also define some non-standard methods:

Document.execCommandShowHelp: This method never did anything and always threw an exception, so it was removed in Gecko 14.0.
Document.getBoxObjectFor (en-US): Use the Element.getBoundingClientRect() method instead.
Document.loadOverlay: Loads a XUL overlay dynamically. This only works in XUL documents.
document.queryCommandText: This method never did anything but throw an exception, and was removed in Gecko 14.0.

Internet Explorer notes

Microsoft defines some non-standard properties:

document.fileSize* Non-standard: Returns size in bytes of the document. Starting with Internet Explorer 11, that property is no longer supported. See MSDN.Internet Explorer does not support all methods from the Node interface in the Document interface
document.contains: As a work-around, document.body.contains() can be used.