Topic: Hack

Hi, guys. How are ya? Well, do you use <blockquoto> to indent text? My tutor said to me that it was "hack". How do you indent your text? Css?

Hiroki Kozai

If the text you wish to indent actually is a quotation, then you should certainly use <blockquote>.

If it is not a quotation, then you should use the "margin" properties of CSS.

If, for some reason, you can't use CSS, and your text isn't actually a quotation; then you can indent it using <blockquote>, and it'll be a "hack," something that works even though it isn't exactly right.

In a perfect world, every HTML tag will explain what's inside it. A <p> tag will always have only a single paragraph in it, for example. A <cite> tag will contain the title of a work. A <blockqutoe> tag will contain a long quotation.

That way, other programs can use those tags as a way of getting information about the data in your document. And, just as important, your document will make sense to anyone who reads the source code.

That's right - indentation is a presentational aspect of the page, and hence should be handled with CSS.