Introduction to HTML

Module -1

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

Textbook to be published by Pearson ©
Ed2015
in early
Pearson
2014
Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development
http://www.funwebdev.com
 Objectives
1 HTML Defined
and its History 2 HTML Syntax

3 Semantic Markup
4 Structure of
HTML

5 Quick Tour of
HTML 6 HTML
Semantic
Elements

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

Section 1 of 6

HTML DEFINED + ITS HISTORY

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development
 Brief History of HTML
Did we mention that this will be brief?

• ARPANET of the late 1960s

• Jump quickly to the first public specification of
the HTML by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991
• HTML’s codification by the World-Wide Web
Consortium (better known as the W3C) in 1997.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 HTML Syntax
What is a markup language?

HTML is defined as a markup language.

• A markup language is simply a way of annotating a
document in such a way to make the annotations
distinct from the text being annotated.
• The term comes from the days of print, when
editors would write instructions on manuscript
pages that might be revision instructions to the
author or copy editor.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Sample ad hoc markup

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Markup
What is it again?

Markup is a way to indicate information about the

content
• This “information about content” in HTML is
implemented via tags (aka elements).
• The markup in the previous slide consists of the red
text and the various circles and arrows on the one
page, and the little yellow sticky notes on the other.
• HTML does the same thing but uses textual tags.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 What is the W3C?
Standards

The W3C is the main standards organization for the

World Wide Web.
To promotes compatibility the W3C produces
recommendations (also called specifications).
In 1998, the W3C turned its attention to a new
specification called XHTML 1.0, which was a version of
HTML that used stricter XML (Extensible Markup
Language) syntax rules.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 XHTML
The goal of XHTML with its strict rules was
to make page rendering more predictable
by forcing web authors to create web
pages without syntax errors.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 XHTML
You too can be strict

The XML-based syntax rules for XHTML are pretty easy to follow.
The main rules are:
1. Lowercase tag names,
eg: <p>, <h1>
2. Attributes always within quotes,
eg: <p align=“left”>

3. And all elements must have a closing element (or be self-

closing). eg: <p>-----</p>, <br/>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 XHTML
Two versions

To help web authors, two versions of XHTML were

created:
XHTML 1.0 Strict and XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
• The strict version was meant to be rendered by a
browser using the strict syntax rules and tag
support described by the W3C XHTML 1.0 Strict
specification.
• The transitional recommendation is a more
forgiving flavor of XHTML, and was meant to act as
a temporary transition to the eventual global
adoption of XHTML Strict.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Standards Movement
Following a standard is a good thing

During much of the 2000s, the focus in the professional web

development community was on standards: that is, on limiting
oneself to the W3C specification for XHTML.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Validators
How to ensure your pages follow a standard

A key part of the standards movement in the web

development community of the 2000s was the use of
HTML Validators as a means of verifying that a web
page’s markup followed the rules for XHTML
transitional or strict.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 How about an example
Only if you have an internet connection

Open a web browser to the W3C

validator and find a few websites to
test.

Type the URL into the bar, and you

can check if the home page is valid
against various standards (or auto-
detect)

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 XHTML 2.0 and WHATWG
Where did it go?

In the mid 2000s, XHTML 2.0 proposed a revolutionary and

substantial change to HTML.
• backwards compatibility with HTML and XHTML 1.0 was
dropped.
• Browsers would become significantly less forgiving of
invalid markup.
At around the same time, a group of developers at Opera and
Mozilla formed the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application
Technology Working Group) group within the W3C.
This group was not convinced that the W3C’s embrace of
XML and its abandonment of backwards-compatibility was
the best way forward for the web.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 HTML5
The new hotness

By 2009, the W3C stopped work on XHTML 2.0 and

instead adopted the work done by WHATWG and
named it HTML5.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 HTML5
Three main aims

There are three main aims to HTML5:

1. Specify unambiguously how browsers should deal
with invalid markup.
2. Provide an open, non-proprietary programming
framework (via Javascript) for creating rich web
applications.
3. Be backwards compatible with the existing web.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 HTML5
It evolves

 While parts of the HTML5 are still being finalized,

all of the major browser manufacturers have at
least partially embraced HTML5.
 Certainly not all browsers and all versions support
every feature of HTML5.
 This is in fact by design. HTML in HTML5 is now a
living language: that is, it is a language that evolves
and develops over time.
 As such, every browser will support a gradually
increasing subset of HTML5 capabilities

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 HTML5 Support in Browsers
No HTML5
Support

Partial HTML5 Support

Full HTML5 Support

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

Section 2 of 6

HTML SYNTAX
Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development
 Elements and Attributes
More syntax

HTML documents are composed of textual content

and HTML elements.
An HTML element can contain text, other elements, or
be empty. It is identified in the HTML document by
tags.
HTML elements can also contain attributes. An HTML
attribute is a name-value pair that provides more
information about the HTML element.
In XHTML, attribute values had to be enclosed in
quotes; in HTML5, the quotes are optional.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 What HTML lets you do

 Insert images using the <img> tag

 Create links with the <a> tag
 Create lists with the <ul>, <ol> and
<li> tags
 Create headings with <h1>, <h2>,
…, <h6>
 Define metatdata with <meta> tag
 And much more…

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Elements and Attributes

Opening Tag Closing Tag

<a href="http://www.centralpark.com">Central Park</a>

Element Name Attribute Content

May be text or other HTML elements

Trailing Slash

Example empty element <br />

Element Name

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Nesting HTML elements

Often an HTML element will contain other HTML

elements.
In such a case, the container element is said to be a
parent of the contained, or child, element.
Any elements contained within the child are said to be
descendents of the parent element; likewise, any
given child element, may have a variety of ancestors.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Hierarchy of elements
ancestor

<body> parent
child
<p>
This is some <strong>text</strong>
</p>
<h1>Title goes here</h1>
sibling
<div>descendants
<p>
This is <span>important</span>
</p>
</div>
</body>

<body>
descendants children

<p> <h1> <div>

siblings

<strong> <p>
ancestors

<span>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Nesting HTML elements

In order to properly construct a hierarchy of elements,

browser expects each HTML nested element to be
properly nested.
That is, a child’s ending tag must occur before its
parent’s ending tag.
Correct Nesting

<h1>Share Your <strong>Travels</strong></h1>

<h1>Share Your <strong>Travels</h1></strong>

Incorrect Nesting

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

Section 3 of 6

SEMANTIC MARKUP
Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development
 Semantic Markup
What does it mean?

Over the past decade, a strong and broad consensus

has grown around the belief that HTML documents
should only focus on the structure of the document.
Information about how the content should look when
it is displayed in the browser is best left to CSS
(Cascading Style Sheets).

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Semantic Markup

As a consequence, beginning HTML authors are often

counseled to create semantic HTML documents.
That is, an HTML document should not describe how
to visually present content, but only describe its
content’s structural semantics or meaning.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Structure
 Structure is a vital way of communicating
information in paper and electronic
documents.
 All of the tags that we will examine in this
presentation are used to describe the basic
structural information in a document, such as
articles, headings, lists, paragraphs, links,
images, navigation, footers, and so on.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Semantic Markup
Its advantages

Eliminating presentation-oriented markup and writing semantic

HTML markup has a variety of important advantages:
Maintainability. Semantic markup is easier to update and
change than web pages that contain a great deal of presentation
markup.
Faster. Semantic web pages are typically quicker to author and
faster to download.
Accessibility. Visiting a web page using voice reading software
can be a very frustrating experience if the site does not use
semantic markup.
Search engine optimization. Semantic markup provides better
instructions for search engines: it tells them what things are
important content on the site.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

Section 4 of 6

STRUCTURE OF HTML
Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development
 Simplest HTML document
1 <!DOCTYPE html>
<title>A Very Small Document</title>
<p>This is a simple document with not much content</p>

The <title> element (Item) is used to provide a broad

description of the content. The title is not displayed within
the browser window. Instead, the title is typically displayed
by the browser in its window and/or tab.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 A more complete document
1 <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
2 <head lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8"> 5
3 <title>Share Your Travels -- New York - Central Park</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> 6
<script src="js/html5shiv.js"></script> 7
</head>
<body>
<h1>Main heading goes here</h1>
4 ...
</body>
</html>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

1 DOCTYPE
(short for Document Type Definition)

 Tells the browser (or any other client software that is reading this
HTML document) what type of document it is about to process.
 Notice that it does not indicate what version of HTML is contained
within the document: it only specifies that it contains HTML.

1 <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
2 <head lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8"> 5
3 <title>Share Your Travels -- New York - Central Park</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> 6
<script src="js/html5shiv.js"></script> 7
</head>
<body>
<h1>Main heading goes here</h1>
4 ...
</body>
</html>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 HTML, Head, and Body

HTML5 does not require the use of the <html>, <head>, and
<body>.
However, in XHTML they were required, and most web
authors continue to use them.

2 The <html> element is sometimes called the root element as

it contains all the other HTML elements in the document.
1 <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
2 <head lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8"> 5
3 <title>Share Your Travels -- New York - Central Park</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> 6
<script src="js/html5shiv.js"></script> 7
</head>
<body>
<h1>Main heading goes here</h1>
4 ...
</body>
</html>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Head and Body
HTML pages are divided into two sections: the head
and the body, which correspond to the <head> and
<body> elements.
3 The head contains descriptive elements about the
document

4 The body contains content that will be displayed by

the browser.
1 <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
2 <head lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8"> 5
3 <title>Share Your Travels -- New York - Central Park</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> 6
<script src="js/html5shiv.js"></script> 7
</head>
<body>
<h1>Main heading goes here</h1>
4 ...
</body>
</html>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Inside the head
There are no brains

You will notice that the <head> element contains a

variety of additional elements.
5 The first of these is the <meta> element. Our example
declares that the character encoding for the document
is UTF-8.
1 <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
2 <head lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8"> 5
3 <title>Share Your Travels -- New York - Central Park</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> 6
<script src="js/html5shiv.js"></script> 7
</head>
<body>
<h1>Main heading goes here</h1>
4 ...
</body>
</html>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Inside the head
No brains but metas, styles and javascripts

6 Our example specifies an external CSS style sheet file

that is used with this document.
7 It also references an external Javascript file.

1 <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
2 <head lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8"> 5
3 <title>Share Your Travels -- New York - Central Park</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> 6
<script src="js/html5shiv.js"></script> 7
</head>
<body>
<h1>Main heading goes here</h1>
4 ...
</body>
</html>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

Section 5 of 6

QUICK TOUR OF HTML

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development
 Why a quick tour?

HTML5 contains many structural and presentation

elements – too many to completely cover in this
presentation.
Rather than comprehensively cover all these elements,
this presentation will provide a quick overview of the
most common elements.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Sample Document
<body>
<h1>Share Your Travels</h1>
1
<h2>New York - Central Park</h2>
2 <p>Photo by Randy Connolly</p>
<p>This photo of Conservatory Pond in
<a href="http://www.centralpark.com/">Central Park</a> 3
New York City was taken on October 22, 2011 with a
<strong>Canon EOS 30D</strong> camera.
</p> 4
5 <img src="images/central-park.jpg" alt="Central Park" />

<h3>Reviews</h3>
6 <div> 7
<p>By Ricardo on <time>September 15, 2012</time></p>
<p>Easy on the HDR buddy.</p>
</div>

<div>
<p>By Susan on <time>October 1, 2012</time></p>
<p>I love Central Park.</p>
</div>
8

<p><small>Copyright &copy; 2012 Share Your Travels</small></p>

</body> 9

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

1 Headings
<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc

HTML provides six levels of

heading (h1, h2, h3, …), with
the higher heading number
indicating a heading of less
importance.
Headings are an essential way
for document authors use to
show their readers the
structure of the document.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Headings

The browser has its

own default styling for
each heading level.
However, these are
easily modified and
customized via CSS.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Headings
Be semantically accurate

In practice, specify a heading level that is semantically

accurate.
Do not choose a heading level because of its default
presentation
• e.g., choosing <h3> because you want your text to
be bold and 16pt

Rather, choose the heading level because it is

appropriate
• e.g., choosing <h3> because it is a third level
heading and not a primary or secondary heading

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

2 Paragraphs
<p>

Paragraphs are the most basic unit of text in an HTML

document.
Notice that the <p> tag is a container and can contain
HTML and other inline HTML elements
inline HTML elements refers to HTML elements that do
not cause a paragraph break but are part of the
regular “flow” of the text.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

6
Divisions
<div>

This <div> tag is also a container element and is used

to create a logical grouping of content
• The <div> element has no intrinsic presentation.
• It is frequently used in contemporary CSS-based
layouts to mark out sections.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Using div elements
Can you say “div-tastic”

HTML5 has a variety of new semantic elements (which

we will examine later) that can be used to reduce
somewhat the confusing mass of div within divs within
divs that is so typical of contemporary web design.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

3 Links
<a>

Links are created using the <a> element (the “a”

stands for anchor).
A link has two main parts: the destination and the
label.

<a href="http://www.centralpark.com">Central Park</a>

Destination Label (text)

<a href="index.html"><img src="logo.gif" /></a>

Label (image)

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Types of Links

You can use the anchor element to create a wide range of links:
• Links to external sites (or to individual resources such as
images or movies on an external site).
• Links to other pages or resources within the current site.
• Links to other places within the current page.
• Links to particular locations on another page.
• Links that are instructions to the browser to start the
user’s email program.
• Links that are instructions to the browser to execute a
Javascript function.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Different link destinations
Link to external site

<a href="http://www.centralpark.com">Central Park</a>

Link to resource on external site

<a href="http://www.centralpark.com/logo.gif">Central Park</a>

Link to another page on same site as this page

<a href="index.html">Home</a>

Link to another place on the same page

<a href="#top">Go to Top of Document</a>

Link to specific place on another page

<a href="productX.html#reviews">Reviews for product X</a>

Link to email

<a href="mailto://[email protected]">Someone</a>

Link to javascript function

<a href="javascript://OpenAnnoyingPopup();">See This</a>

Link to telephone (automatically dials the number

when user clicks on it using a smartphone browser)

<a href="tel:+18009220579">Call toll free (800) 922-0579</a>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Link Text
Some guidance … or … don’t “Click Here”

Links with the label “Click Here” were once a staple of

the web.
Today, such links are frowned upon, since:
• they do not tell users where the link will take them
• as a verb “click” is becoming increasingly inaccurate
when one takes into account the growth of mobile
browsers.
Instead, textual link labels should be descriptive.
“Click here to see the race results”
“Race Results” or “See Race Results”.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 URL Absolute Referencing
For external resources

When referencing a page or resource on an external

site, a full absolute reference is required: that is,

• the protocol (typically, http://),

• the domain name,
• any paths, and then finally
• the file name of the desired resource.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 URL Relative Referencing
An essential skill

We also need to be able to successfully reference files

within our site.
This requires learning the syntax for so-called relative
referencing.
When referencing a resource that is on the same
server as your HTML document, then you can use
briefer relative referencing. If the URL does not include
the “http://” then the browser will request the current
server for the file.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 URL Relative Referencing

If all the resources for the site reside within the same
directory (also referred to as a folder), then you can
reference those other resources simply via their
filename.
However, most real-world sites contain too many files
to put them all within a single directory.
For these situations, a relative pathname is required
along with the filename.
The pathname tells the browser where to locate the
file on the server.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Pathnames

Pathnames on the web follow Unix conventions.

• Forward slashes (“/”) are used to separate directory
names from each other and from file names.
• Double-periods (“..”) are used to reference a
directory “above” the current one in the directory
tree.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 URL Relative Referencing
Share-Your-Travels
Relative Link Type Example
/ (root folder)
1 Same Directory To link to example.html from
about.html (in Figure 2.18), use:
index.html
To link to a file within the same
<a href="example.html">
about.html folder, simply use the file name.
1 7
example.html 2 Child Directory To link to logo.gif from about.html,
use:
To link to a file within a subdirectory,
images/ <a href="images/logo.gif">
2
use the name of the subdirectory
logo.gif and a slash before the file name.
Grandchild/Descendant To link to background.gif from
central-park.jpg 3 Directory about.html, use:
css/
<a
To link to a file that is multiple
href="css/images/background.gif"
main.css subdirectories below the current
>
one, construct the full path by
images/
including each subdirectory name
3
background.gif (separated by slashes) before the file
name.
members/
4 Parent/Ancestor Directory To link to about.html from
4 5
index.html index.html in members, use:
Use “../” to reference a folder above
<a href="../about.html">
randyc/ the current one. If trying to
6
reference a file several levels above To link to about.html from bio.html,
bio.html
the current one, simply string use:
together multiple “../”.
<a href="../../about.html">

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 URL Relative Referencing
Share-Your-Travels 5 Sibling Directory To link to logo.gif from index.html in
members, use:
/ (root folder)
Use “../”to move up to the appropriate
<a href="../images/about.html">
level, and then use the same technique as
index.html
for child or grandchild directories. To link to background.gif from bio.html,
about.html use:
1 7
example.html <a
href="../../css/images/background.gif"
images/
6 >
2
logo.gif Root Reference To link to about.html from bio.html, use:

central-park.jpg <a href="/about.html">

An alternative approach for ancestor and
sibling references is to use the so-called root To link to background.gif from bio.html,
css/
reference approach. In this approach, begin use:
main.css the reference with the root reference (the
<a href="/images/background.gif">
“/”) and then use the same technique as for
images/
child or grandchild directories. Note that
3
background.gif these will only work on the server! That is,
they will not work when you test it out on
members/
7 your local machine.
4 5
index.html Default Document To link to index.html in members from
about.html, use either:
randyc/
Web servers allow references to directory
6 <a href="members">
bio.html
names without file names. In such a case,
the web server will serve the default Or
document, which is usually a file called
<a href="/members">
index.html (apache) or default.html
(IIS). Again, this will only generally work on
the web server.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Inline Text Elements
Do not disrupt the flow

Inline elements do not disrupt the flow of text (i.e.,

cause a line break).
HTML5 defines over 30 of these elements.
e.g., <a>, <br>, <em>, <strong>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Images

While the <img> tag is the oldest method for

displaying an image, it is not the only way.
For purely decorative images, such as background
gradients and patterns, logos, border art, and so on, it
makes semantic sense to keep such images out of the
markup and in CSS where they more rightly belong.
But when the images are content, such as in the
images in a gallery or the image of a product in a
product details page, then the <img> tag is the
semantically appropriate approach.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Images
Specifies the URL of the image to display Text in title attribute will be displayed in a popup
(note: uses standard relative referencing) tool tip when user moves mouse over image.

<img src="images/central-park.jpg" alt="Central Park" title="Central Park" width="80" height="40" />

Text in alt attribute provides a brief Specifies the width and height of
description of image’s content for users who image in pixels.
are unable to see it.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Lists
HTML provides three types of lists

Unordered lists. Collections of items in no particular

order; these are by default rendered by the browser as
a bulleted list.
Ordered lists. Collections of items that have a set
order; these are by default rendered by the browser as
a numbered list.
Definition lists. Collection of name and definition
pairs. These tend to be used infrequently. Perhaps the
most common example would be a FAQ list.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Lists
<ol>
<li>Introduction</li>
<li>Background</li>
Notice that the list item element <li>My Solution</li>
can contain other HTML <li>
elements <ol>
<li>Methodology</li>
<ul> <li>Results</li>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li> <li>Discussion</li>
<li>About Us</li> </ol>
<li>Products</li> </li>
<li>Contact Us</li> <li>Conclusion</li>
</ul> </ol>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Character Entities
These are special characters of symbols for which there is either
no way easy way to type in via a keyboard (such as the copyright
symbol or accented characters) or which have a reserved meaning
in HTML (for instance the “<” or “>” symbols).
A character entity look like:
They can be used in an HTML document by using the entity name
or the entity number.
&entity_name;
OR
&#entity_number;
e.g., &nbsp; and &copy; &lt; or &#60;

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

Section 6 of 6

HTML SEMANTIC ELEMENTS

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development
 HTML5 Semantic Elements
Why are they needed?

One substantial problem with modern, pre-HTML5

semantic markup:
most complex web sites are absolutely packed solid
with <div> elements.
Unfortunately, all these <div> elements can make the
resulting markup confusing and hard to modify.
Developers typically try to bring some sense and order
to the <div> chaos by using id or class names that
provide some clue as to their meaning.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 XHTML versus HTML5
<body>
<div id="header"> <body>
1 <header>
<div id="logo-headings">
<header> 2 <hgroup>
1 <hgroup>
...
... 2
</div>
...
</hgroup>
<div id="top-navigation">
...
...
<nav>
...
</div>
</div>
3 <nav> </nav> 3
4 </header>
<div id="main">
<div id="main">
<div id="left-navigation">
<nav>
...
...
</div>
</nav>
<div class="content">
5 <section>
<div class="story">
<section> ...
5 <article>
</div>
6 <article> ... 6
</article>
<div class="story">
<article>
...
<figure>
<div class="story-photo">
<img ... class="blog-photo"/>
7 <img ... /> 7
<figcaption>...
<p classs="photo-caption">... <figure>
</figure>
</div>
8 <figcaption> ...
</div>
</article> 8
<div class="related-stuff-on-right">
<aside>
... 9 <aside> ... 9
</div>
</aside>
</div> </section>
<div class="content"> <section>
... ...
</div> </section>
</div> </div>
<div id="footer"> <footer>
10
... ...
10
<footer> </div> </footer>
</body> </body>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

1 10
Header and Footer
<header> <footer>

Most web site pages have a recognizable header and

footer section.
Typically the header contains
• the site logo
• title (and perhaps additional subtitles or taglines)
• horizontal navigation links, and
• perhaps one or two horizontal banners.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

1 10
Header and Footer
<header> <footer>

The typical footer contains less important material,

such as
• smaller text versions of the navigation,
• copyright notices,
• information about the site’s privacy policy, and
• perhaps twitter feeds or links to other social sites.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Header and Footer

Both the HTML5 <header> and <footer> element can

be used not only for page headers and footers, they
can also be used for header and footer elements
within other HTML5 containers, such as <article> or
<section>.

<header>
<img src="logo.gif" alt="logo" />
<h1>Fundamentals of Web Development</h1>
...
</header>
<article>
<header>
<h2>HTML5 Semantic Structure Elements </h2>
<p>By <em>Randy Connolly</em></p>
<p><time>September 30, 2012</time></p>
</header>
...
</article>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 2
Heading Groups
<hgroup>

The <hgroup> element can be used to group related

headings together within one container.

<header>
<hgroup>
<h1>Chapter Two: HTML 1</h1>
<h2>An Introduction</h2>
</hgroup>
</header>
<article>
<hgroup>
<h2>HTML5 Semantic Structure Elements </h2>
<h3>Overview</h3>
</hgroup>
</article>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

3 Navigation
<nav>

The <nav> element represents a section of a page that

contains links to other pages or to other parts within
the same page.
Like the other new HTML5 semantic elements, the
browser does not apply any special presentation to the
<nav> element.
The <nav> element was intended to be used for major
navigation blocks, presumably the global and
secondary navigation systems.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Navigation
<header>
<img src="logo.gif" alt="logo" />
<h1>Fundamentals of Web Development</h1>
<nav role="navigation">
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">About Us</a></li>
<li><a href="browse.html">Browse</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

5 6
Articles and Sections
<article> <section>

The <article> element represents a section of content

that forms an independent part of a document or
site.
For example, a magazine or newspaper article, or a
blog entry.
The <section> element represents a section of a
document, typically with a title or heading.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Articles and Sections

According to the W3C, <section> is a much broader

element, while the <article> element is to be used for
blocks of content that could potentially be read or
consumed independently of the other content on the
page.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Sections versus Divs
How to decide which to use

The WHATWG specification warns readers that the

<section> element is not a generic container element.
HTML already has the <div> element for such uses.
When an element is needed only for styling purposes
or as a convenience for scripting, it makes sense to use
the <div> element instead.
Another way to help you decide whether or not to use
the <section> element is to ask yourself if it is
appropriate for the element's contents to be listed
explicitly in the document's outline.
If so, then use a <section>; otherwise use a <div>.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

7 8
Figure and Figure Captions
<figure> <figcaption>

The W3C Recommendation indicates that the <figure>

element can be used not just for images but for any
type of essential content that could be moved to a
different location in the page or document and the rest
of the document would still make sense.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Figure and Figure Captions
Note however …

The <figure> element should not be used to wrap

every image.
For instance, it makes no sense to wrap the site logo or
non-essential images such as banner ads and graphical
embellishments within <figure> elements.
Instead, only use the <figure> element for
circumstances where the image (or other content) has
a caption and where the figure is essential to the
content but its position on the page is relatively
unimportant.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 Figure and Figure Captions
<p>This photo was taken on October 22, 2011 with a Canon EOS 30D camera.</p>
<figure>
<img src="images/central-park.jpg" alt="Central Park" /><br/>
Figure could be <figcaption>Conservatory Pond in Central Park</figcaption>
moved to a </figure>
different <p>
location in
It was a wonderfully beautiful autumn Sunday, with strong sunlight and
document
expressive clouds. I was very fortunate that my one day in New York was
…
blessed with such weather!
But it has to
</p>
exist in the
document
(i.e., the
figure isn’t
optional)

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

9
Aside
<aside>

The <aside> element is similar to the <figure> element

in that it is used for marking up content that is
separate from the main content on the page.
But while the <figure> element was used to indicate
important information whose location on the page is
somewhat unimportant, the <aside> element
“represents a section of a page that consists of content
that is tangentially related to the content around the
aside element.”
The <aside> element could thus be used for sidebars,
pull quotes, groups of advertising images, or any other
grouping of non-essential elements.

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development

 What You’ve Learned
1 HTML Defined
and its History 2 HTML Syntax

3 Semantic Markup
4 Structure of
HTML

5 Quick Tour of
HTML 6 HTML
Semantic
Elements

Randy Connolly and Ricardo Hoar Fundamentals of Web Development