HTML, XHTML, Semantics and the Future of the Web

Clarifies exactly what XHTML is, explains why you need to be learning about it from today, and steps through the process of transitioning to the standards based way of marking up for the web, and beyond.

Allsopp, John. Western Civilization (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XHTML

Joe Clark's Answers -- in Valid XHTML

An extremely interesting but rather long read -- answers each question thoroughly and, there is plenty of discourse following the piece itself.

Clark, Joe. Slashdot (2002). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>XHTML

Linking in XHTML 2.0

As a fundamental part of the Web, hypertext linking has been the subject of repeated attempts at standardization beyond the basic format allowed in simple HTML. Such attempts can be characterized as efforts to balance machine processing ability with authoring convenience. The latest specification in this area, XHTML 2.0, just might have gotten it right.

Dubinko, Micah. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Migrating from HTML to XHTML and XML - Part II

This is the second part of a two-part article describing a detailed methodology for migrating HTML files to the structure and flexibility of XHTML and/or XML.

James-Tanny, Char. WritersUA (2006). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Put XHTML 1.0 Strict and Transitional to Work  

As its name suggests, XHTML--which is considered the successor to HTML 4--is a combination of HTML and XML. By combining the power of XML and HTML, XHTML makes Web content more accessible to devices such as phones, handhelds, and televisions. XHTML 1.0 is broken up into what the W3C refers to as three flavors: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset. In this article, I focus on the two most useful, Strict and Transitional.

Morton, Shawn. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

The Trouble with Web Standards

You may mistrust web standards because of bad experiences with buggy browsers. Or you might have converted a site from HTML to XHTML, only to discover that their layouts suddenly looked different in standards-compliant browsers. Don't give in to the dark side! Web standards are here to stay.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. Creative Pro (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Transitional Layouts in (X)HTML and CSS: An Interview with Eric A. Meyer

In a pivotal user test a couple years ago we found out one of the secrets of great web sites: they inspire confidence in users. This article explores how to measure it and use it to your advantage.

Porter, Joshua. User Interface Engineering (2003). Articles>Web Design>XHTML

Web "Microformats"

Microformats is a term used to describe the storage of information using simple markup variations within existing markup languages. To a certain extent, microformats describes a methodology or philosophy, and comprises a set of design principles. Microformats is not a new language. It is usually a permutation of XHTML. The philosophy of microformats involves storing data in human-readable formats which are also machine-readable, but the emphasis is on the humans! Information tends to be visible, rather than hidden metadata.

Self, Tony. HyperWrite (2004). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XHTML

XHTML and the Escape Codes

But one of the lesser known differences between HTML and XHTML is that attributes within tags (such as the href attribute within a link tag) must use 'entities' for special reserved characters. For example, within mark-up, & has a special meaning. Greater than and less than signs (> and <) also have a special meaning, as they are used to define tags.

HyperWrite (2004). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

The Basics of HTML

In this article you will learn the basics of HTML—what it is, what it does, its history in brief, and what the structure of an HTML document looks like.

Francis, Mark Norman. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>HTML>XHTML

Use Only Block-Level Elements in Blockquotes

The blockquote element is not allowed to have text or inline elements as direct descendants. Only block-level (and in HTML 4.01 Strict, script) elements are allowed unless you use a Transitional Doctype, in which case both block-level and inline elements are allowed. But there are plenty of sites that use a Strict Doctype and still have blockquote elements that contain inline elements.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Building a More Semantic Web With Microformats

This paper will introduce the Semantic Web, the next stage in the development of the web. We will explain why semantics are important, how they can help computers catalogue data, and how this will benefit us as individuals. We will also look at microformats, an ongoing project the aims to help us create a more semantic web. We assume you have a good knowledge of XHTML.

Mercurytide (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XHTML

What’s the Difference Between HTML and XHTML?

If you’ve mastered HTML, you’re 90% of the way towards using XHTML. They’re actually very much the same thing—tag-based markup languages used to display Web pages. The difference is only seen by the people creating the pages (Web designers, programmers, etc.) and focuses on “forgivability”— HTML allows for some ugly code (mixed case tags like , improperly nested elements, and unclosed tags), while XHTML does not. If you write HTML, it’s probably a good idea to start using XHTML practices anyway. It will take 5 minutes to learn, and it’s just a better way of doing things.

Jason, Chris. ChrisJason.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>HTML>XHTML

The Sagacity in Validation

In one of my introductory articles I stated that I do not care much for validation, yet I use well-formed XHTML 1.0 Strict (no less) as my preferred standard and CSS for layout purposes. If so, why on earth would I claim not to care about, or ignore, validation?

Hilhorst, Didier P. Nundroo (2004). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Web Design Going in the Wrong Direction?

There’s way too much talk about CSS and XHTML and Standards and Accessibility and not enough talk about people. CSS and Standards Compliant Code are just tools — you have to know what to build with these tools.

Signal vs. Noise (2004). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Web Development Mistakes

When I visit a website, especially if it’s the site of a competitor or a prospective client, I like viewing source and take a look at what’s under the hood. It’s one of my not-so-secret obsessions. And I am way too often absolutely disgusted by what I see. The web is overflowing with sites that use horribly invalid, broken, and inaccessible markup.

456 Berea Street (2004). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Prototyping with XHTML

Looking for another way of realizing your design deliverables? XHTML are easy to code, can double as specifications, and create constraints that increase design effectiveness.

Ramsay, Anders and Leah Buley. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Web Design>Planning>XHTML

Common Ideas Between HTML and XHTML

As of this writing, HTML and XHTML are both being used to create Web sites. But there are multiple versions of each, with specific changes and ideas attached. The following table shows the current W3C HTML and XHTML recommendations of note.

Web Standards Project (2004). Articles>Web Design>HTML>XHTML

HTML Versus XHTML: Which Should We Use, and Why?

HTML 4.01 is as valuable as XHTML 1.0 in a daily usage. The syntax proposed by XHTML 1.0 has several important benefits. The weight of these benefits has to be evaluated in the context of your project: Use the right tool for the right job. For a Web designer, starting to use XHTML 1.0 will be helpful in some circumstances and will certainly help you to smoothly negotiate the future. XHTML 1.0 gives a wonderful opportunity to learn about XML languages and their possibilities without having to learn new semantics because you’re working with familiar tags and attributes.

Web Standards Project (2005). Articles>Web Design>HTML>XHTML

XSL(T) Tools for XHTML

One of the great things about XHTML is that it combines the well-known power of HTML as an hypertext markup language with the power of the tools developed to work on XML documents. Among those tools, one of the most ubiquitous technology developed for XML is the Extensible Style sheet Language (XSL), and especially its Transformation language that allows to transform a given XML document in another XML document with a set of declarative rules. This document lists a set of style sheets that takes advantage of XHTML being an XML language to make your XHTML documents more re-usable.

W3C (2003). Articles>Web Design>XHTML>XSL

The Road to XHTML 2.0: MIME Types

Here's a dirty little secret: browsers aren't actually treating your XHTML as XML. Your validated, correctly DOCTYPE'd, completely standards compliant XHTML markup is being treated as if it were still HTML with a few weird slashes in places they don't belong (like
and ). Why? The answer is MIME types.

Pilgrim, Mark. XML.com (2003). Articles>Web Design>XHTML>Standards

Recommended List of DTDs You Can Use in Your Web Document

When authoring document is HTML or XHTML, it is important to Add a Doctype declaration. The declaration must be exact (both in spelling and in case) to have the desired effect, which makes it sometimes difficult. To ease the work, below is a list of recommended declarations that you can use in your Web documents.

W3C (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML