[thelist] semantic markup

Mike Hopkins ironmike at inav.net
Tue Jun 1 09:20:01 CDT 2004


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Drew Gilmore" <drewbert at JoiMail.com>

> ...I often write educational
> materials for work, and as is often the standard in print,
I'll use
> bold to indicate the first appearance of a new vocabulary
word. I know
> that <b> is discouraged, but I've never been quite sure
whether <em> or
> <strong> would be more appropriate semantically. There are
other times
> I've been unsure exactly which <Hn> to use for a
particular side bar's
> heading.

It is perfectly OK to use Bold when it is BOLD you want. The
reason that
EM and S are preferred in general is they more clearly
convey the quality
of emphasized text, which may also be spoken strongly, in
alternate voice,
italicized, colored, etc. If your specific users have no
need to emphasize
the bolded text go ahead and use bold -- BUT if you have any
need for text
to be used by someone who is not reading it from a compurer
screen, then
bold is unpredictable and may not work.

As for Hn, I don't have any answer. Maybe you should set up
a style sheet,
like is used in the print industry and just assign a
properly CSS-styled value.


> ...but often I just wish someone with both a good solid
understanding of CSS
> *and* an English major or other strong writing background
would put
> together "The Elements of Style... Sheets" as a guide to
proper
> semantic markup.

ME TOO!!
Then there would (I hope) be fewer flame wars here on
theList and elsewhere.



More information about the thelist mailing list