depends on what kind of attributes you are talking about
File attributes are one thing (hidden, archive, readonly)
Attributes can also be considered the properties of an object but normally should be called properties for clarifaction. In a textbook your author may just prefer attributes over properites
Attributes could be metadata for an object youll have to look that one up
Attributes can be used to display Categories and Descriptions for Properties in Custom User Controls and Components
hope that will clarify it a little
might have made it worse lol