Making sense of HTML5 - Build Windows 8 Apps with HTML5 and JavaScript - page 31

Note Elements such as <section> , <article> , <header> , and <footer> are semantic elements,
in the sense that browsers treat them as block elements. If you look at final results, there's
nearly no difference between semantic elements and plain DIV elements. The most
significant difference is in the expressivity of the resulting markup. By using < section >,
<article> , <header> , and <footer> elements, the resulting markup is much easier to read,
understand, and maintain over time.
The aside element
A lot of HTML pages display part of their content on columns that lie side by side horizontally. The
<aside> element has been introduced in HTML5 to quickly identify some content that is related to the
content being displayed all around. The syntax of the <aside> element is straightforward:
<aside> Markup </aside>
A very common scenario where you might want to take advantage of the <aside> element is to
define a sidebar in an article element and, more in general, to create multicolumn layouts for the
content of the page or sections of the page.
The nav element
The <nav> element indicates a special section of the page content—the section that contains major
navigation links. It should be noted that not all links you can have in a HTML page must be defined
within a <nav> element. The <nav> element is reserved only for the most relevant links, such as
those you would place on the main page navigation menu.
The syntax of the <nav> element is fairly intuitive. It consists of a list of <a> anchor elements listed
within the <nav> element:
<nav>
<a href="..."> Home </a>
<a href="..."> Find us </a>
<a href="..."> Job opportunities </a>
</nav>
The <nav> element plays an important role in HTML5 because it indicates the boundaries of the
section of the page that contains navigation links. This allows special page readers—such as browsers
for disabled users—to better understand the structure of the page and optionally skip some content.
Important All semantic elements in HTML5 are important in light of accessibility, and just
for this reason, they should be considered for use in any webpage that has chances to be
read by disabled users.