Maybe a slight stretch, but how about wrapping these related elements (label, input, etc) up in their own fieldset, and using the legend for that text (thus associating it with the (input and label within).
<form...> <fieldset> <legend>This is the title of your news post (does not accept HTML input)</legend> <label...>...</label> <input..../> </fieldset> </form> Other suggestion: use a title on the input <input... title="This is the title of your news post (does not accept HTML input)" /> To be honest, I wouldn't get too overly worried about getting the semantics exactly right in this case, mainly because HTML is a flawed language with very few general (and a few overly specific) elements with defined semantic meaning and relationship. Anything that falls outside of that is always going to be a rough approximation - trying to squeeze the requirement of semantics encountered in the real-world into the small, restricitve slots provided by the existing spec. (then again, you could create your own DTD that adds your own nice custom explanation element to the current set ;) ) Patrick ________________________________ Patrick H. Lauke Webmaster / University of Salford http://www.salford.ac.uk > -----Original Message----- > From: Justin French > Sent: 22 July 2004 15:25 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [WSG] semantic way to mark up form help? > > > Hi all, > > I'm trying to decide on a nice semantic way to mark-up a > short (usually > only a few words) block of help text in the context of a web form. I > currently use a label to label the input, and a paragraph or div to > mark-up the help text: > > <form...> > <div class='formitem'> > <label for='f-title'>...</label> > <input id='f-title' type='text'... /> > <p class='help'>This is the title of your news > post, which does not > accept HTML input</p> > </div> > </form> > > But logic tells me that in the above example, the <p> help > text is not > associated with the form widget or the label at all. The only way I > can see this being done is by including the help text in the > label, but > this will restrict me in terms of layouts. > > Honestly, the most logical way I can see to do this is to > have them in > three cells of a table row, since at least they'll be associated in a > row. <fieldset>'s would also be nice, but they're intended for > groupings of form elements, and using them for each text input seems > like a load of bloat. > > I've been looking at many examples of "correct, semantic forms", but > can't see anything like this out there. > > TIA > > --- > Justin French > http://indent.com.au > > ***************************************************** > 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 *****************************************************
