[UPHPU] "design standardization" thoughts

[Brandon Stout]

cole at colejoplin.com wrote:

>>    * h1 is used at the beginning of a distinct block of content. An
>> h1 always denotes the beginning of a new distinct block.
>>    * h4 is used within a distinct block of content, and does not
>> denote the start or end of a distinct block.
>
> Nice idea, but I couldn't use it as described. I have very specific 
> reasons for using an H1 or H2, which has everything to do with SEO. I 
> need sections descriptions, subs, just like an outline. This is the 
> purpose of the HTML tag. The same goes for classes versus ids in CSS, 
> they have a specific purpose. Having standardized class names and id 
> names would make more sense to me as a place for programmer standards, 
> IMO.
>
> -- Cole

I agree with Cole on this one.  I'm like those mentioned on this page:

  http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#idx-numbered_headings

Where it says (reworded in active voice) some people consider skipping 
heading levels a bad practice. They accept h1 - h2 - h1 but not h1 - h3 
- h1 since this skips h2. (just said the same thing with 30% fewer words).

If your cms will always have an h1 => h2 => h3 trail to your h4, then 
_maybe_ you should go for it.  Please account for headings after this h4 
also.  This ensures a properly structured document.  Don't use h1 to h6 
for styles (eg, the obvious font size and weight), use them for 
structure, and style them as you wish with css.  I would also say that a 
document with several h1 elements probably needs better structure, and 
if your page has several blocks, I'd guess you might have too many h1 
elements.

XHTML 2.0 offers a much better way of handling headings.  You can use 
the simple un-numbered header tag <h>, then imply heading levels with 
the <section> tag.  Subheadings will occur inside <section> tags.  This 
allows more than just 6 levels.  An example on w3.org:

  
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-xhtml2-20040722/mod-structural.html#edef_structural_section

I would use IDs or classes for the things you want to do with h1 and 
h4.  DOM can still find distinct blocks when those blocks are the only 
ones with class="distinctBlock" :) .

Brandon Stout
http://flfn.org