Styling Using Tags
HTML was invented to provide access to textual information that can be easily navigated and
cross-referenced via hyperlinks. Commercialization of the Internet drove the need for rich
HTML content, and the ensuing browser competition generated strong demand for styling
capability. The initial wave of style support came in the form of tags that would modify the
output of text or attributes such as color. The
, , and tags are a perfect example of
the style tags added to HTML.
The following piece of HTML displays text using an Arial font with bold and italic styling:
This text is Bold, Italic Blue Text
Layout tags such as and can also be considered part of the style of the
document. Originally designed to display data in a tabular format, these tags have been co-opted
for layout purposes by web designers. Most of the HMTL sites you see on the Web use the
tag to lay out content. Unfortunately, tables render differently in different browsers and much
tweaking is required to get them ???just right.??? Having a more precise layout mechanism would
go a long way toward reducing the amount of work needed.
Another unfortunate side effect of using style tags to manage the appearance of an HTML
document is tag maintenance.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213