what happens when you have a number of <h1> tags that relate to different sections? Like #content h1 or #right h1 is that an issue.
Jackie Reid Mock Orange Web Site Development 1st Floor 92 Victoria Street MACKAY Q 4740 Ph: 07 4953 4035 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "russ weakley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Web Standards Group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 6:35 AM Subject: [WSG] A rave about <h1>'s > I've been thinking about a post from a few days ago that has been bothering > me. The comments in this post highlight the difference between "valid > markup" and "structurally-sound markup": > > Question: > "...you have the headings of these as <h1>s I'm not sure if you should have > more than one <h1> a page? is that correct?" > > Reply: > "You can have as many h1's as you want" > > >From a valid code point of view, this is correct. Your page can be littered > with <h1> elements. But what about from a document-structure point > of view? > > For some devices, such as screen readers and search engine robots, > well-structured headings are very important. > > One example is how screen readers access a page. Blind users cannot skim > across a page like sighted users, so they need mechanisms that let them > skip across the content using audio. Two main methods involve > skipping across content using links or headings. > > When a blind user comes to a page, many screen readers will start by saying > something like "This page has 38 links". The blind user can tab through > these links until they get to one they want. The same applies to headings. > Each heading on the page is ordered by weight and this is significant to the > screen reader - and in turn the blind user. If an item is given <h1> weight > on the page, there is an assumption that it is very important content, or a > major section of content. If there are too many <h1> elements on the page, > the heading weight and structure becomes blurred. > > Outside of the web, this can also be seen in a poorly laid out MSWord > documents, for example. An inexperienced user of MSWord will mark-up all > headings in bold. However, there is no hierarchy of heading levels so it > becomes hard to understand what is a major heading, a subheading or a > sub-sub-heading. The page structure may not be clear to someone else who > tries to read it. People who use MSWord correctly assign headings using the > styled heading levels. They are giving the page semantic meaning and the > page structure is clear to anyone who reads it. > > So, the point of this rave? While using multiple <h1>'s are valid, you > should also think about the underlying page structure - and think about how > other devices will interpret this structure. > > There is an online tool at W3C called the "semantic data extractor" (what a > fantastic name!) that can be used to test your page for basic heading > structure and hierarchy. If you type in a URL you will see a result showing > how the pages heading are organised - including their nesting. Very basic > output, but worth a look: > http://www.w3.org/2003/12/semantic-extractor.html > > Russ > > > ***************************************************** > The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ > See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > for some hints on posting to the list & getting help > ***************************************************** > > ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
