Explaining web standards using Microsoft Word
– posted February 27th, 2007 by Laurence Veale Comments (2) for Explaining web standards using Microsoft Word
Recently, while training a group of content authors on writing for the web, I had to explain the difference between appearance and semantics. The authors were not techies, so I wanted to avoid talking about HTML, web standards and anything else with a strong eye-glazing potential. That's when I turned to Microsoft Word...
When is a heading, not a heading?
First off, I wanted to structure my text a little better for better scannability. One approach is to simply change the size of the text using the font size menu in MS Word.
Consequently, when trying to create a table of contents, Word throws an error, "Error! No table of contents entries found". Why? While the the headings certainly look like headings. In fact, there is no inherent meaning that Word can infer and as a result can't build a table of contents.
Semantics versus appearance
There is an alternative approach to just increasing the font size. We can assign what's called a style to the text instead.
By using the style menu to apply a "Heading" style to the text, we are giving it meaning, thus allowing Word to build a table of contents successfully.
And that's web standards without having to mention XHTML or CSS once! What about you, how do you make the complex simple?
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Categories: Accessibility, Design and Content
2 comments so far
1. Des Traynor on March 1st, 2007 - 2:20PM
Ehh, thats a bit freaky, thats the
*exact* example I used in my 6 lecture HTML/CSS course for Biology students who use MS Word.
Heres 2 slides, I can't publicise the course, technically the college owns the material.
http://www.destraynor.com/images/slidea.png
http://www.destraynor.com/images/slideb.png
2. Lar on March 1st, 2007 - 5:31PM
Get outta town, Des! That's very interesting indeed.
It's an example that, IMHO, really holds resonance with people who don't have a HTML background yet contribute web content via a content management system.
Most are familiar with Word and can easily identify with this example, at least more so than h1 and font tags!
My approach is to tell the participants that in addition to their day jobs, if they are contributing content to their organisation's website, then they are also web professionals.
The content that they contribute collectively reflects how their site is judged so structure is really really important.
Hope you made this morning's lecture on time!