HTML, the Foundation of the Web

HTML is hot again. Some time ago the HTML5 promo machine got up to speed, causing a little mini-fuss. In a parallel universe, others are still putting a lot of time and effort into the development of xHTML2. This (public) renewal of interest in HTML caused plenty of discussion, revealing several blank spots in the general knowledge of HTML. This article will hopefully plug one of the most notorious holes shut.

Matthijs, Niels. Web Page Design for Designers (2008). Design>Web Design>HTML>HTML5

CSS Speech Bubbles

Easy to customize speech bubbles coded in valid XHTML and CSS.

Mayo, Will. WillMayo.com (2008). Design>Web Design>HTML>CSS

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

Death of a Meta Tag

The value of adding meta keywords tags to pages seems little worth the time. In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead. Like Andrew, I say good riddance!

Sullivan, Danny. ClickZ (2002). Articles>Web Design>HTML>Metadata

Refactor to Improve Code Design

Refactoring restructures your code into a more simplified or efficient form in a disciplined way. Refactoring software code improves its internal structure without changing external functionality for more efficient execution, faster download speed, and easier updates.

Website Optimization (2008). Articles>Web Design>HTML>Compression

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

Semantics in HTML 5

HTML 5, the W3C’s recently redoubled effort to shape the next generation of HTML, has, over the last year or so, taken on considerable momentum. It is an enormous project, covering not simply the structure of HTML, but also parsing models, error-handling models, the DOM, algorithms for resource fetching, media content, 2D drawing, data templating, security models, page loading models, client-side data storage, and more. There are also revisions to the structure, syntax, and semantics of HTML.

Allsopp, John. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>HTML5

When Can I Use...

Compatibility tables for features in HTML5, CSS3, SVG and other upcoming web technologies in the most popular web browsers.

Deveria (2009). Reference>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

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

HTML No Longer Needed

Much in the same way that Microsoft Word and PageMaker made desktop publishing more widely available and eliminated the need for tagging to achieve formatting, blogs and wikis are doing the same for the web. You can use WordPress to create an entire web site without knowing or using HTML. Editme.com is providing web site services using wiki technologies. These tools help users publish content with less knowledge of the underlying tagging.

Answers for All (2009). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>HTML

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

jQuery Embedded in Dojo Accordion Panes

We will experiment embedding jQuery in DOJO 123's Accordion widget and try to identify if there exists any cross-code interactions. The code is also tested for cross-browser suitability.

Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. Packt (2009). Design>Web Design>DHTML>JavaScript

Bookmark (Anchor) Linking Tip

You can link to any tag within the page by quoting its ID. For example, if you have a paragraph with an ID of "intro", then you can link directly to that point without having to insert a bookmark.

Self, Tony. HyperWrite (2007). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>HTML

HTML 5 Doctor

html5doctor is a collaboration between, Rich Clark, Bruce Lawson, Jack Osborne, Mike Robinson, Remy Sharp and Tom Leadbetter. The site came about following a HTML5 meetup after the Future of Web Design conference in London (2009). We decided that there wasn’t a resource that catered for the people who wished to find out more about implementing HTML5 and how to go about it, so we thought we’d better build one. We will publish articles relating to HTML5 and it’s semantics and how to use them, here and now.

HTML 5 Doctor. Resources>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

The 'Video' Element

The 'video' element is brand new in HTML 5 and allows you to, get this, play a movie in your website! The data of this element is supposed to be video but it might also have audio or images associated with it. Of course, this will only work in a few browsers: Safari 3.1+, Firefox 3.5+, and latest builds of Opera (oh, and potentially the next release of Chrome).

HTML 5 Doctor (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>HTML5

Understanding 'aside'

HTML 5 offers a new element to mark additional information that can enhance an article but isn’t necessarily key to understanding it. However, in the interpretation of 'aside' there lies confusion as to how it can be used, and with that there is demand for the Doctor to step up and clear the air. In this article I will look at what 'aside' was created for, including sample uses and how not to use this useful, misunderstood element.

HTML 5 Doctor (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

The 'header' Element

Recently, we have seen a growing interest in HTML 5 and it’s adoption by web professionals. Within the HTML 5 specfication we can see that there have been a significant number of new tags added, one of these the

Yes, You Can Use HTML 5 Today!

The blogosphere was jerked into excitement when Google gave a sneak preview of its new service, Google Wave. Only the select few have an account, but there’s an 80-minute video about it on YouTube for the rest of us. The service is an HTML 5 app, and so HTML 5 has gone from being too far away to care about to today’s hot topic.

Lawson, Bruce. SitePoint (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

HTML 5: Now or Never?

Here at SitePoint, we have started thinking about HTML 5, and whether or not the time is right to publish a book about it. To help us decide, we asked a number of web luminaries what they thought. Their answers were both varied and interesting. Take a look and decide for yourself: is it time you started learning about HTML 5?

Yank, Kevin. SitePoint (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

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