function set_background() { docBody = document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]; //Get all the p elements that are descendants of the body myBodyElements = docBody.getElementsByTagName("p"); // get the first p elements myp1 = myBodyElements[0]; myp1.style.background = "rgb(255,0,0)"; // get the second p elements myp2 = myBodyElements[1]; myp2.style.background = "rgb(255,255,0)"; }