HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
1.13 Defining Acronyms and Abbreviations
Problem
You want to provide expanded definitions for acronyms and abbreviations.
Solution
Contain the abbreviation or acronym with
abbr
, and include the definition as the
title
value:
<abbr title="Accessible Rich Internet Applications">ARIA</abbr>
Discussion
In previous versions of HTML we had both the
abbr
and the
acronym
elements. Not
surprisingly in the always-ready-for-a-debate web world, these two elements caused
much controversy.
Part of the issue is that prior to version 7, IE didn't display the
title
value of
abbr
as a
tool tip (see
Figure 1-6
). To get around this usability limitation, authors simply started
using
acronym
, regardless of whether the content was actually an acronym.
Figure 1-6. Default rendering of <abbr> tool tip in Firefox 5.0
Another part of the issue was the argument about what was an acronym versus what
constituted an abbreviation.
Today, the debate is over (at least for practical purposes), as
acronym
has been dropped
completely from the HTML5 specification. The reasoning is that all acronyms are
shortened forms of words or phrases, which is the very definition of an abbreviation.
See Also
