This section concentrates on mistakes in HTML authoring that are more problems
of aesthetics then problems of device-independence.
Contents
The section on
HTML elements in the HTML
specification indicates that HTML documents should not mix those
elements which belong in the HEAD of
a document with those which belong in the BODY.
The urgency of this suggestion is unclear, but it does make a certain
amount of common sense for readability of HTML code, and for
conformance with possible future browsers which may not support the
mixing of these elements. Essentially, it lacks serious style points >=).
In general, the use of white space around element tags should be
avoided. If white space immediately follows a start tag, for example,
the style changes implied by that element may be applied to the
initial space, as well. For instance, <A
HREF="http://www.willamette.edu/~jtilton/"> CZeCh THIZ 0uT
</A> would be rendered as CZeCh THIZ 0uT . On
some browsers, there may be white space around the anchor, which adds
unwanted unsightliness to the rendering, and may lessen the impact of
the document. (This comment really applies to white space immediately
following start tags, and immediately preceding end tags).
The HTML
specification points out that a heading
should not be more then one level below the heading which preceded it.
That is, <H3> should not follow <H1>, etc.
Also, it is pointed out that "a heading element implies all the font
changes, paragraph breaks before and after, and white space (for
example) necessary to render the heading". Extra highlighting
elements are discouraged, therefore.
When creating documents, make sure that your links are meaningful
-- that is, that they avoid
online-specific references, and that they don't
detract from readability. The text of your links should flow well
in the context of the rest of your text (especially avoid the click
here syndrome!), and your text should also be able to stand
alone as a printable
document.
In other words, avoid using sentences like, "You can find out more
information about cows by clicking here". (This
is also bad because it refers to "clicking", which assumes that
everyone is using a mouse with their browser!) A much better
alternative is "More
information about cows is available."
Since HTML (and also SGML) is designed to be a device independent language for
describing the content of documents, most of the elements within it
aren't intended to give direct control to the author over how the
final page layout will look. The major exceptions to this are in the
character
highlighting elements.
There are two types of character highlighting elements -- physical and
logical. The physical styles involve things like "italic font",
"boldface", etc; while the logical styles are things like "emphasis",
"citation", "strong", etc. It is strongly
recommended that you employ the logical styles rather than
the physical styles in your documents. Using <I></I> to
render text in italics will only be effective on those browsers which
are capable of displaying italics -- which all browsers are not
guaranteed to do. It is far better to encode semantic content -- to
describe things in terms of logical styles -- and then allow the
browser to display that semantic structure as best it can, given its
display capabilities.
So, instead of
- <I>italics</I>
- you might use <EM>emphasized</EM>, or a
<CITE>citation</CITE>, and instead of
- <B>bold</B>
- you might use <STRONG>strong</STRONG>.
This also leaves the possibilities open in the future for more
sophisticated uses of these semantic renderings, which have much more
inherent meaning than font styles like bold or italic.
(Unfortunately, the jury is still out to lunch on this one. One
argument against logical character styles is that it turns out to be a
bottomless pit, attempting to define logical styles for every
possibility. Physical styles, combined with the context of the text
in which they are placed, seem to provide a much richer set without a
huge number of tags. Oh, well. Use logical styles when you can, though.)
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Last modified: Dec 11, 1994
James "Eric" Tilton, HTML Guru Wannabee,
jtilton@willamette.edu