Is it necessary to have a heading of <section> in HTML5 like mentioned here http://blog.whatwg.org/is-not-just-a-semantic
Sometime on a page we have some elements which are related and can be combined in a <section id="semantic name"> instead <div id="semantic name"> But we don't have any Heading for that..
Is it OK to use <section> without having <h1>, <h2>, <h3> inside
According to the HTML5 Doctor, you should not use <section> if there is no natural heading for it. Also, they say:
The section element represents a generic document or application section…The section element is not a generic container element. When an element is needed for styling purposes or as a convenience for scripting, authors are encouraged to use the div element instead.
Also, check out this nifty flowchart to decide what element is best to use in your situations.
No, it is not required.
You can easily check this by reading the definition of the section element ("should" is not "must") or by validating your HTML.
The W3C validator will report a warning when no heading is used, but a warning is not an error.
Its only necessary if it wont [validate] (http://validator.w3.org)
The use of section tags is to convey the structure of your content, like a book is split into chapters, paragraphs, etc
If your page is mash of images to look like a magazine cover you may not have a need for adding any sections. You'll most likely still want structure for navigation but that's not done using sections.
I would say any page containing chunks of text (most pages) should use a section tag rather than a div. keep the divs for controlling layout only.
My best advice is to see how your site looks in a text only browser, or other accessible client. It amazing how rubbish most sites are designed for accessibility. My take is that section tags are an attempt to improve that.
Related
Is it an acceptable practice to use section tag as a child anywhere in the page
or it should be always a main tag???
For example:
<section class="software-development">
<h2>
<span>Software</span>
<span>Development</span>
</h2>
<div class="development-areas">
<section class="web-apps">
<h2>Web Applications</h2>
<p>dolor ipsum........</p>
</section>
<section class="mobile-apps"></section>
<section class="desktop-apps"></section>
</div>
</section>
You can use almost any HTML tag for anything you want, but the idea of semantic tags is to give meaning to the content of your page.
In this particular case, you can use the section tag (or even the article) to define any self-contained part of your page, there's nothing wrong with that, in fact it IS a section after all with its own title. Don't think of the use of the tags as a hierarchy all the time; think of what the element your creating actually is in the page and use the appropiate tag;
This is a great article that can help you clear everything regarding semantic tags:
https://www.lifewire.com/why-use-semantic-html-3468271
Just a quote from the same article:
Semantic HTML or semantic markup is HTML that introduces meaning to the web page rather than just presentation. For example, a <p> tag indicates that the enclosed text is a paragraph. This is both semantic and presentational, because people know what paragraphs are and browsers know how to display them.
More information for the section tag based on Mozilla's Docs:
Each should be identified, typically by
including a heading (<h1>-<h6> element) as a child of the
element.
If it makes sense to separately syndicate the content of a <section>
element, use an <article> element instead.
Do not use the <section> element as a generic container; this is what
<div> is for, especially when the sectioning is only for styling
purposes. A rule of thumb is that a section should logically appear in
the outline of a document.
You can read more in this question as well: https://stackoverflow.com/a/53229971/8437694
No, not anywhere. The specs say the following (emphasis mine):
The section element represents a generic section of a document or
application. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of
content, typically with a heading.
Examples of sections would be chapters, the various tabbed pages in a
tabbed dialog box, or the numbered sections of a thesis. A Web site's
home page could be split into sections for an introduction, news
items, and contact information.
Authors are encouraged to use the article element instead of the
section element when it would make sense to syndicate the contents of
the element.
The section element is not a generic container element. When an
element is needed only for styling purposes or as a convenience for
scripting, authors are encouraged to use the div element instead. A
general rule is that the section element is appropriate only if the
element's contents would be listed explicitly in the document's
outline.
So <section> could easily be put almost anywhere without fighting against its semantics.
Technically, you can use <section> anywhere "where flow content is expected".
Is having a single section within the main tag acceptable or is redundant?
<main>
<section>
<section>
...
</section>
<section>
...
</section>
</section>
</main>
Or should I just put the two section tags within the main... even though all the content within it is relatable.
Also, is having a <header> within every single section acceptable? It is classified as “a group of introductory or navigational aids”. But seems like if I were to use it as I've described, it'd be just like using <h1>-<h6>.
The <section> element is used to represent a group of related content. There shouldn't be any issue in nesting these tags. You could also make use of other tags like <article>, <aside> etc.. The idea behind using these elements is to give more semantic meaning to your pages, allowing computer browser to understand your content better.
There are no restrictions on how to nest them and what tags to use in them. You can have the whole set of html tags with in them (you can use h1-h6, or other elements).
You might want to have a look at these articles:
How to Use The HTML5 Sectioning Elements
http://html5doctor.com/the-section-element/
Question: is the single section inside main redundant?
It depends on the semantic meaning of your page. Describe your
desired page layout in natural language. If you say "the main area
has a section that contains many sub-sections", then your HTML is
right on the money. If you say "the main area is broken down into a
few sections", then your single section sounds like an evolved form
of the div-itis virus - the one that left a lot trash behind: wrappers,
containers, container-wrappers, content-wrappers, main-content-wrappers,
wrapping-containers, containing-wrappers...
Question: is header within every section acceptable?
Yes. But again, do the above natural language litmus test to
determine if it is suitable.
There's also some confusion between <h1>-<h6> vs <header>. Think of header as an "introductory part" within a section. It may or may not be necessary in your markup. If your introductory part of the section consists of, say, only a <h1>, you should probably omit use of the <header>; but if your introductory part includes a few items, e.g. a heading, a logo, a nav bar, then it's probably a good idea to wrap them in a <header> tag.
I read in the HTML5 specification that the generic div tag should only be used as "last resort," when a more specific element is unavailable. For example, the tags header, footer and section are preferred for grouping content thematically.
But it seems like the vast majority of websites still use div as the primary element. My question is, how often and in what contexts is it appropriate to use a div? And which other elements should be used in its place?
I'm looking for answers based on the specification rather than personal opinions. Thanks!
There isn't anything that takes the place of <div> (theres a reason its still in the spec), but HTML5 has more elements available that are more specific.
In addition to <header>, <footer>, and <section> there is:
<nav>
<article>
<aside>
<main>
<details>
<summary>
<figure>
<dialog>
<menu>
and more!
Basically any new HTML5 element can take the place of a <div>.
When should you use a div? You answered it yourself:
when a more specific element is unavailable
MDN has a HTML5 element list which contains all standard HTML5 elements, and indicates which elements are new with HTML5.
The thing to remember is that div tag is still a part of HTML5 and it’s not obsolete, yet.
However, div element has been abused a lot with HTML4, and rightfully so as there were never any alternates to it. Now that HTML5 has included some great new structural elements, div is no longer the best option for creating layouts.
The main disadvantage with div is that the element has no meaning due to which creating application-ready layouts is very difficult. The new structural elements introduced in HTML5 will surely help a lot with that issue.
The section element will most likely be used more than the other structural elements like header, footer etc. mainly because it is not specific as others. Also there is no limit as to how many structural elements you can add but the thing to remember is that section is not a complete div replacement.
div still has a role in HTML5. It is great for grouping similar elements as well as dividing elements as needed. Also section should not be used just for styling because section was not intended to be a wrapper.
The reason header, section, footer, and other such elements were created is to help with referencing them in css and scripting languages. W3C looked at the most common IDs web developers were using for divs and made the new elements in HTML5 accordingly. The reason divs and IDs is widely considered bad practice is because all those attributes clutters up the code. And as we all know, cluttered coding leads to mistakes and errors.
Where do you use them? That's pretty self explanatory. Take the header for example. It's most common use is the top of the web page. Right click on the stack overflow logo at the top and view the source. They're actually using a div with an ID of 'header'. Technically, that's bad practice.
A great use for divs is to create a wrapper around your entire content like this.
<div id="wrapper">
<!--content-->
</div>
Then you can reference it in css to center:
#wrapper{margin:20px auto;}
Hoped this helped!
What is the difference between <section> and <div> in HTML? Aren't we defining sections in both cases?
<section> means that the content inside is grouped (i.e. relates to a single theme), and should appear as an entry in an outline of the page.
<div>, on the other hand, does not convey any meaning, aside from any found in its class, lang and title attributes.
So no: using a <div> does not define a section in HTML.
From the spec:
<section>
The <section> element represents a generic section of a document or application. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of content. Each section should be identified, typically by including a heading (h1-h6 element) as a child of the <section> element.
Examples of sections would be chapters, the various tabbed pages in a tabbed dialog box, or the numbered sections of a thesis. A Web site’s home page could be split into sections for an introduction, news items, and contact information.
...
The <section> element is not a generic container element. When an element is needed only for styling purposes or as a convenience for scripting, authors are encouraged to use the <div> element instead. A general rule is that the <section> element is appropriate only if the element’s contents would be listed explicitly in the document’s outline.
(https://www.w3.org/TR/html/sections.html#the-section-element)
<div>
The <div> element has no special meaning at all. It represents its children. It can be used with the class, lang, and title attributes to mark up semantics common to a group of consecutive elements.
Note: Authors are strongly encouraged to view the <div> element as an element of last resort, for when no other element is suitable. Use of more appropriate elements instead of the <div> element leads to better accessibility for readers and easier maintainability for authors.
(https://www.w3.org/TR/html/grouping-content.html#the-div-element)
Sections are most relevant in landmark navigation for assistive technology. To appear in the document outline or landmark list, they need a name, which can be assigned by means of aria-label, aria-labelledby or title:
<section aria-labelledby="s3-h2">
<h2 id="s3-h2">Introduction</h2>
…
For example VoiceOver on Mac then can provide an outline to navigate directly to that section.
<section> marks up a section, <div> marks up a generic block with no associated semantics.
Just an observation - haven't found any documentation corroborating this
If a section contains another section, a h1-header in the inner section is displayed in a smaller font than a h1- header in outer section.
When using div instead of section the inner div h1-header is diplayed as h1.
<section>
<h1>Level1</h1>
some text
<section>
<h1>Level2</h1>
some more text
</section>
</section>
-- the Level2 - header is displayed in a smaller font than the Level1 - header.
When using css to color h1 header, the inner h1 were also colored (behaves as regular h1).
It's the same behaviour in Firefox 18, IE 10 and Chrome 28.
<div> Vs <Section>
Round 1
<div>: The HTML element (or HTML Document Division Element) is the generic container for flow content, which does not inherently represent anything. It can be used to group elements for styling purposes (using the class or id attributes), or because they share attribute values, such as lang. It should be used only when no other semantic element (such as <article> or <nav>) is appropriate.
<section>: The HTML Section element (<section>) represents a generic section of a document, i.e., a thematic grouping of content, typically with a heading.
Round 2
<div>: Browser Support
<section>: Browser Support
The numbers in the table specifies the first browser version that fully supports the element.
In that vein, a div is relevant only from a pure CSS or DOM perspective, whereas a section is relevant also for semantics and, in a near future, for indexing by search engines.
In the HTML5 standard, the <section> element is defined as a block of related elements.
The <div> element is defined as a block of children elements.
Take caution not to overuse the section tag as a replacement for a div element. A section tag should define a significant region within the context of the body. Semantically, HTML5 encourages us to define our document as follows:
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<header></header>
<section>
<h1></h1>
<div>
<span></span>
</div>
<div></div>
</section>
<footer></footer>
</body>
</html>
This strategy allows web robots and automated screen readers to better understand the flow of your content. This markup clearly defines where your major page content is contained. Of course, headers and footers are often common across hundreds if not thousands of pages within a website. The section tag should be limited to explain where the unique content is contained. Within the section tag, we should then continue to markup and control the content with HTML tags which are lower in the hierarchy, like h1, div, span, etc.
In most simple pages, there should only be a single section tag, not multiple ones. Please also consider also that there are other interesting HTML5 tags which are similar to section. Consider using article, summary, aside and others within your document flow. As you can see, these tags further enhance our ability to define the major regions of the HTML document.
<div>—the generic flow container we all know and love. It’s a block-level element with no additional semantic meaning (W3C:Markup, WhatWG)
<section>—a generic document or application section. A normally has a heading (title) and maybe a footer too. It’s a chunk of related content, like a subsection of a long article, a major part of the page (eg the news section on the homepage), or a page in a webapp’s tabbed interface. (W3C:Markup, WhatWG)
My suggestion:
div: used lower version( i think 4.01 to still) html element(lot of designers handled that).
section: recently comming (html5) html element.
Using <section> may be neater, help screen readers and SEO while <div> is smaller in bytes and quicker to type
Overall very little difference.
Also, would not recommend putting <section> in a <section>, instead place a <div> inside a <section>
The section tag provides a more semantic syntax for html. div is a generic tag for a section.
When you use section tag for appropriate content, it can be used for search engine optimization also. section tag also makes it easy for html parsing. for more info, refer. http://blog.whatwg.org/is-not-just-a-semantic
<section></section>
The HTML <section> element represents a generic section of a
document, i.e., a thematic grouping of content, typically with a
heading. Each <section> should be identified, typically by including
a heading (<h1>-<h6> element) as a child of the <section>
element. For Details Please following link.
References :
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_section.asp
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/HTML/Element/section
<div></div>
The HTML <div> element (or HTML Document Division Element) is the
generic container for flow content, which does not inherently
represent anything. It can be used to group elements for styling
purposes (using the class or id attributes), or because they share
attribute values, such as lang. It should be used only when no other
semantic element (such as <article> or <nav>) is appropriate.
References:
- http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_div.asp
- https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/HTML/Element/div
Here are some links that discuss more about the differences between them:
http://html5doctor.com/avoiding-common-html5-mistakes/
https://teamtreehouse.com/community/use-div-or-section-element
http://webdesign.about.com/od/html5tags/fl/div-vs-section.htm
The <section> tag defines sections in a document, such as chapters, headers, footers, or any other sections of the document.
whereas:
The <div> tag defines a division or a section in an HTML document.
The <div> tag is used to group block-elements to format them with CSS.
Many web sites contain HTML code like: <div id="nav"> <div class="header"> <div id="footer"> to indicate navigation, header, and footer. So <div> was used to define different parts of a web page in html4 but <div> doesn't mean anything particular therefore html5 introduced many semantic elements <section> is one of them which give enough information to screen readers, search engines and browsers etc, to identify the different part of websites.
the main difference is if you use only <div> to define website parts. it's less readable.
if you use semantic elements instead of div tag. they can help to improve readability of your website not only to humans for other programs(screen reader, search engine etc) also. we still can use <div> inside semantic elements as a container.
I'm learning about HTML5, and honestly I can't say I'm really impressed. Semantics are nice and all, but I think that they introduced new elements with a very thin line between them, and a even thinner line between them and the old divs.
Everything is very clear if you do a generic purpose site, like a blogging engine, news publishing portal, and similar, but web apps... I'm having a lot of dilemmas about new html elements.
Here is my situation. I'm developing an ordering system. On the sellers interface I have 3 columns (inline), which represent the status of the order. When the status is changed element is moved from one column into another (background ajax, and js manipulation).
In Html4 I would use 3 divs and put a heading with a title on top of each one. Elements inside the columns would also be divs.
But what about HTML5? I have been looking at the section element, but I'm not really sure how to use it. Here are the options:
Put everything inside one section - I don't think that is the way to go
Put a section around each of the column divs, and heading inside the section
Replace the divs with sections
Put sections inside column divs
So, which way to go?
EDIT: first of all thanks everyone for your quick replies. In the end I'll probably go with Ian Devlins suggestion, and put each column as section. Anyway, just to point out my dissatisfaction with html5, multiple permitted options aren't always a good thing. I'm afraid what will the html5 web look like in a few years, when we can't fully agree on a simple question like this.
EDIT2: one more thing. I'll ask it here so I don't have to open another question. In addition to these 3 columns I have another div which contains order details, when any of the orders are selected. Should it be an article since its self-contained content, or to use an aside tag?
div is a perfectly valid HTML5 tag. If the new tags don't make any sense in your project, don't feel forced to use them.
To quote the w3.org spec:
The section element represents a generic section of a document or application. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of content, typically with a heading.
And another quote from the w3.org people:
The section element is not a generic container element. When an element is needed for styling purposes or as a convenience for scripting, authors are encouraged to use the div element instead. A general rule is that the section element is appropriate only if the element's contents would be listed explicitly in the document's outline.
Given the definition for section by w3 we can conclude that your example would be a good use of section because:
The elements have a header
It is a thematic grouping of content
It is a part of the document outline.
EDIT:
To expand upon your comment below, the new HTML5 elements are NOT supposed to replace the old HTML4 elements. For example, going through a page and replacing all the div elements with section elements would be flat out wrong. The section element was, in my opinion, intended to make it easier for machines to parse certain pages (think: feedburners) by giving a more semantic structure to a page. After all, what's easier to parse, a page with 30 div elements, or a page with 10 div 5 header 5 section 5 article and 5 footer elements?
In this particular case I would have an overall div around them, and then each column as a section as each one has a different meaning, each of which I assume has a heading indicating its status.
e.g.
<div>
<section id="col1">
<header><h1>Column 1</h1></header>
content....
</section>
<section id="col2">
<header><h1>Column 2</h1></header>
content....
</section>
<section id="col3">
<header><h1>Column 3</h1></header>
content....
</section>
</div>