[thelist] <fieldset> and <legend> vs <h2>
Robert O'Rourke
rob at sanchothefat.com
Wed Jun 27 09:07:15 CDT 2007
Bill Moseley wrote:
> I tend to use fieldsets with every form, even for forms that have a few
> elements.
>
In XHTML strict it's a requirement so I stick to as a coding standard.
> Is it appropriate to use if the form only has a single field?
>
>
> <form>
> <fieldset>
> <legend>Name</legend>
> <input type="text" name="name" />
> </fieldset>
> <div><input type="submit" /></div>
> </form>
>
> It's been recommended that this is overkill and should use <h2> for
> the legend instead (and I assume wrap the fields in some block-level
> tag).
>
In terms legends and the like I don't use them for main headings on
forms because they're read out before every label/field. Sometimes on
bigger forms you have to take two lots of similar information like a
billing address and delivery address so I put a fieldset around each set
of similar labels and inputs with a legend containing 'delivery address'
or 'billing address' for example:
<fieldset>
<legend>Delivery Address</legend>
<label for="street">Street: <input id="street" ... /></label>
<label for="loc">Locality: <input id="loc" ... /></label>
<label for="reg">Region: <input id="reg" ... /></label>
...etc...
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Billing Address</legend>
<label for="b-street">Street: <input id="b-street" ... /></label>
<label for="b-loc">Locality: <input id="b-loc" ... /></label>
<label for="b-reg">Region: <input id="b-reg" ... /></label>
...etc...
</fieldset>
So the labels are the same in each fieldset but they are clearly marked
as a different set of information.
It seems like thats the consensus from the other replies too.
Rob
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