Style Guide [part 5]
Special Tags
Presentational tags should not be used. Consult the following list for substitutes:
- For emphasis use the
<em> </em>tag. - For strong use
<strong> </strong> - For abbreviations use
<abbr> </abbr>
[This is not supported by Internet Explorer] - For acronyms use
<acronym> </acronym> - For citations use
<cite> </cite> - For defined terms use
<dfn> </dfn> - For
computer codeuse<code> </code> - For keyboard keys use
<kbd> </kbd> - For
quotation marks
in attributes you can use<q> </q>
[This is not supported by Internet Explorer. The special character below works better in current browsers.]
There is a good reason to use <em> instead of <i> and <strong> instead of <b>: <em> and <strong> give an indication of why the presentation has changed, where <i> and <b> only indicate how to change the presentation. Consider the reasons to use italics and if they include citations and emphasis, then use <cite> and <em>. The rule we will use is to include tags in the HTML if they add information about the content. If the tag is strictly presentational, consider using a style sheet to define the presentation. [Speak to your web administrator about this.]
<abbr>, <acronym>, <cite>, and <dfn> all take the title="" attribute. Here's an example of code using the <acronym> tag:
<acronym title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</acronym>.
The advantage of using these tags is that additional information can be presented on a mouse over. The tag can tell the browser why this information is embedded. (Is it an abbreviation, an acronym, etc.?) In the event that the user depends on a non-visual browser, an aural style sheet can be set up to read acronyms properly (e.g. should an acronym be pronounced as a word, like UNESCO, or should the individual letters be spoken as in NKU).
Site Defined <span> Tags
A <span> tag, like a <div> tag, is a generic tag that allows a special inline format to be assigned. A few specific <span> classes have been defined:
- To display a highlight,
use:<span class="yellow">highlight</span>
In the course of creating new portions of the web site more <span> classes may prove useful. If you would like a new class defined, speak to the web administrator.
Special Characters
- For © use
© - For ® use
® - For " use
" - For < use
< - For > use
> - For [blank space] use
Note: This is a place holding blank space, not a space between words. - For & use
& - More special characters.
Use these special characters to avoid confusion concerning whether an item is text or code. Some characters such as <, >, and & have special meaning within the web page's code. Others, such as ©, may not be an available character in every font face but is defined in the HTML specification. Some characters, such as " are fine in text but are required to open and close attributes (such as alt="" or title=""). In an attribute, use the alternate to avoid prematurely closing the attribute.
One thing to note, the & character is everywhere and not using the & special character will cause a validation error. It should be used in text and especially in URLs. Ebsco URLs are full of these. Why is this important? The & signifies the beginning of a character string. Some browsers interpret the & without a close by semicolon (;) as an &. Some browsers assume the semicolon is missing and supply it. When that happens, things start to fall apart. An example I've seen is "§ion" as a part of a URL could be interpreted as § (which is §). If the browser were to fix the error by supplying the semicolon, the link will break. The validator program calls using & in the code instead of &
an REFC error. For a lengthy list of these special characters, consult LYNX DEV archive or this backup file.
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updated: Wednesday, 24-Aug-2005 11:18:34 EDT