JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground by sandeepan_nits December 21, 2010 HTML <h5><span> Do you want to send a message to </span><span id='firstName'></span><span id="test"> right now? </span></h5> <button type="button" onclick="insert();">Insert</button> JavaScript function insert() { var myFirstName = "Thomas"; alert($("span#firstName").parent().outerHTML()); alert("start"+document.getElementById('test').innerHTML+"end"); $.each( $("span#firstName").siblings(),function() { alert($(this).outerHTML()); } ); } jQuery.fn.outerHTML = function() { return $('<div>').append( this.eq(0).clone()).html(); };