[thelist] HTML in web copy

[aardvark]

> From: Lars Hilstrom <larshilstrom at oceanfree.net>
[...]
> Is it OK for me as the copywriter to include HTML in my copy to
> indicate font size, links etc. Or would you as a designer prefer that
> I indicate these things in some other way.

if you can do HTML, i'de love it... *but*, i would not have you use 
font tags... i would ask that you limit it to bolding, italicizing, 
hyperlinks, and probably <h#> tags...  if you knew your extended 
characters (like &#151; for em-dash, or &quot; for double quotes) 
i'd ask that you do that as well...

and i'd ask that you be consistent...

depending on the site, i'd probably run a search-n-replace to add 
titles or targets to your hrefs, tweak any code errors, replace <b> 
with <strong> (or vice versa), etc... i might have to add classes, i'd 
have to add <p></p> tags if you didn't, i'd have to replace any 
'smart-quotes' with character entities, etc...

none of that would bother me, as long as you'd do it consistently, 
then it would be a 5 minute job to fix it all up...

but, you should always ask the client what they want, how they 
want it formatted, anything to avoid, etc... some folks may not 
appreciate <p></p> over <br><br>, or they might get pissy 
replacing your correct <strong> tags with <b> tags... even though 
it's cake to do... but just by offering it, you demonstrate that you 
add some value to the equation over other copy-writers... you 
certainly would in my book...

> I hope this is not off topic.

not off-topic...