A common way to select all elements is to find within document.body so elements like head, script, etc are left out.

Edit code and click me	Your Result (Some examples do not work in Google Chrome):
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <style> h3 { margin: 0; } div,span,p { width: 80px; height: 40px; float:left; padding: 10px; margin: 10px; background-color: #EEEEEE; } #test { width: auto; height: auto; background-color: transparent; } </style> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.5.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ var elementCount = $("#test").find("*").css("border","3px solid red").length; $("body").prepend("<h3>" + elementCount + " elements found</h3>"); }); </script> </head> <body> <div id="test"> <div>DIV</div> <span>SPAN</span> <p>P <button>Button</button></p> </div> </body> </html>
Edit the code above and click to see the result	www.xhtml.co.il - Try it yourself