How to tag thoughts, chapters, etc.

[nizabel]

In trying to keep styling/layout and content separate, how then should I tag, the thoughts of a character (usually italic), proper names (also italic), etc.

Should I put each chapter in its own block (at the moment I use one file for each chapter). I divide the text into div sections to manage normal breaks in text, such as scene change or thought break (often separated using three * or such).

I also use multiple headings when tagging a chapter header <h1>Chapter 4</h1><h2>The Swamp</h2> (just an example). Is this good use.

I'm aware that anything that looks right may be used, but I would like to think that at some point an advanced screen reader is going to read my work

[Yes I did a search - and found next to nothing, other than that <i> tag is pure style and should not be used, and <em> should only be used for emphasized text!]

[Jellby]

For general markup you can use <span> with a class, like <span class="ship_name">Invincible</span> or <span class="thoughts">I have a bad feeling about this</span>.

For chapters, you could wrap each of them in a block (I think that's what HTML5 does), but it's enough to use <h1>Chapter Title</h1> at the beginning of each. Having each chapter in a separate file is a good idea too.

Do not use <h1>Chapter 4</h1><h2>The Swamp</h2>, unless "The Swamp" is a subsection of Chapter 4. If you want to style the chapter number and title differently, you can use something like <h1>Chapter 4<br/><span class="title">The Swamp</span></h1>.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Jellby

For general markup you can use <span> with a class, like <span class="ship_name">Invincible</span> or <span class="thoughts">I have a bad feeling about this</span>.

For chapters, you could wrap each of them in a block (I think that's what HTML5 does), but it's enough to use <h1>Chapter Title</h1> at the beginning of each. Having each chapter in a separate file is a good idea too.

Do not use <h1>Chapter 4</h1><h2>The Swamp</h2>, unless "The Swamp" is a subsection of Chapter 4. If you want to style the chapter number and title differently, you can use something like <h1>Chapter 4<br/><span class="title">The Swamp</span></h1>.

Just to add a bit to what Jellby wrote. Once you get the span set to a class then in the CSS file you can specify how this should be displayed. So you could display this class in italics for example. If you decide on a different presentation then changing one entry in CSS will apply to all instances.

Not that the br/ used in the chapter is better than 2 sets of H1 tags together as well. Using only on H1 with br/ used for the second line will cause a two line display in the document and the TOC will show "Chapter 4 The Swamp" which is usually what you want.

Dale

[nizabel]

Thanks all.

I've used most of the day studying html and css, and reformatting my work