A new form of DHTML behaviors, called "Element Behaviors," wherein a behavior component is bound to an HTML element, and not just attached to the element as with attached behaviors. A special processing instruction is used to import the Element Behavior into a Web page. Upon parsing the Web page, the Element Behavior is initialized as soon as it has been downloaded and parsed. This immediate initialization makes the Element Behavior declaratively available to bind synchronously to the element(s) it is modifying. A viewLink is a feature of Element Behaviors that permits encapsulation of a behavior component file (e.g., an HTC file) so that the structure of the HTC file is transparent to a Web page ("primary document") to which the HTC file is linked, but the content of the HTC file may be displayed in the primary document. The viewLink provides a pointer to the content in the encapsulated HTC file, and renders that content in the primary document, without incorporating the elements of the encapsulated HTC file into the primary document structure.