Topic: CSS links

I've noticed when designers are using css to make links a little more fancy they tend to use lists, or table cells... I was just goofing around making some links for a new site and came up with this. Just wondering if there is a reason designers don't do something like this (as far as I've seen). Is it totally breaking in browsers I'm unaware of, or maybe it's just nasty css?

Lists are used in most cases because a list is the proper semantic markup to use when presenting a list of links. Most such navigation setups are in fact lists in reality, so marking it up as such is just the proper way to go about it.

A table using a similar styling is, of course, the very improper way of doing it.

A simple div with the links just plopped out in sequence is just not very good practice. The CSS gives it it's prominence, while the markup just sits there doing nothing...

So it is not a matter of "when designers are using css to make links a little more fancy", it is a matter of designers using the proper markup to layout the links, and then using CSS to style them in whatever fashion, be it 'fancy' or other.

Hope that helps...

Well I did something similar, on my latest site, but offcourse used far to many <div>, but that's another issue. Perhaps a stupid question, but I have to ask, according my HTML 4.01 Guide, No other tags are legal with in a <li> tag. If this incorrect how do you place links to a list? I think I rember trying it and it was working but I was unsure as to the validity of such a technique. I missing something somewhere, are other tag valid within a <li>.

Perhap's I need to find a better guide.

J. Stuart J.

Ahh... I see; that's exactly what I was wondering, thanks DL!

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I missing something somewhere, are other tag valid within a <li>.

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Yes, almost all element types are valid in LI (not HTML, HEAD, BODY and those that can only occur in HEAD). All of them are not valid as a direct children of course.

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Perhap's I need to find a better guide.

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If that's what it says, you should really find something better.

jstuartj:

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I missing something somewhere, are other tag valid within a
LI

Perhap's I need to find a better guide.

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To do HTML4, the only suitable guide is the DTD of HTML 4. Actually to do anything based on SGML, the best guide is the DTD and the official recomandations of the W3C.

And of course, if in doubt - send it through the Validator and see what it has to say...

Well that's good to know, I guess I will toss my "HIP pocket guide to HTML" from IDG books, then, or make a note, as is is nice being spiral bound to treat it as suspect. I picked up an O'reilly HTML / XHTML and their DHTML guide this morning.


J. Stuart J.