HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
readers could use the elements to help users jump around the page to get
straight to the important content without needing “skip nav” links.
Although many of these benefits won't be realized until some unforeseen
time in the future, you can start adding these new elements now, so that as
soon as tools pop up that can take full advantage of them, you'll be ready.
Even if your browser doesn't recognize an element, you can still style it —
that's standard browser behavior. Well, in every browser but IE. Luckily, you
can easily trick IE into styling these elements using a very simple piece of
JavaScript, handily provided by Remy Sharp.
Of course, you usually can't depend on all your users having JavaScript
enabled, so the very safest and most conservative option is to not use these
new structural elements just yet, but use
div
s with corresponding
class
names as if they were these new elements. For instance, where you would
use an
article
element, use a
div
with a
class
name of “article.” You
can still use the HTML5 doctype — HTML5 pages work fine in IE, as long as
you don't use the new elements. You can then later convert to the new
HTML5 elements easily if desired, and in the meantime, you can take
advantage of the more detailed HTML5 validators. Also, using these
standardized class names can make updating the styles easier for both you
and others in your team, and having consistent naming conventions across
sites makes it easier for users with special needs to set up user style sheets
that can style certain elements in a needed way.
REDUCING JAVASCRIPT AND PLUG-IN DEPENDENCE
Aids in: adaptability, e
"
ciency
A number of the new elements and features in HTML5 make e
"
ects
possible with pure markup that used to be possible only with JavaScript or
