XHTML Guidelines for ITS Website
These guidelines are based on the W3C XHTML sepcification. XHTML is an updated version of HTML, designed to be compatable with future devices and software.
For more information about standards-based markup, see:
Web Standards FAQ, NYPL Styleguide, Mozilla: Using Web Standards
No visual display instructions in the markup
Visual styles are controlled with the website style sheets. The only thing that should go in the HTML markup is information about the structure of the document and the meaning of each part.
No <style> or <font> tags.
Style information is located in the site style sheet.
No <B> (bold) or <I> (italic) tags
use <strong> and <em> respectively.
No <center> tags.
The ITS style sheet has a “center” class which can be applied to HTML tags:
Example: <h3 class=”center”>
Tags should all be lowercase
Example: <a href …> </a>
All tags must be closed
HTML tags which don’t normally have a closing tag should have an “internal” close tag.
Example: <br /> <hr /> <img src… />
Headings should be identified with heading tags
Headings in the body of the page should start with <h3>, sub-headings <h4>, <h5>, etc. (The site heading is <h1> and page title is <h2> ). Bold tags should not be used in place of heading tags.
Anchor name tags should not surround text
Putting text inside the anchor name tags creates a false link. When naming an anchor location, put open and close tags right next to each other or with a single space in between.
Example: <a name></a>
Link text should be explanatory
There should be no links to “this” or “click here.” Use link text that clearly identifies the destination
Links that leave the ITS site should be clearly noted
If a link is going to a page without the ITS website navigation, users should know beforehand. If the link is off of the Pomona domain entirely, the outside website should be clearly identified.
