VIDOVA.ai
Posted on April 11, 2022
There are over a hundred elements in HTML, all of which can be applied to pieces of text to give them special meaning in a document. Most of us only know a few, like the <p>
, <div>
, and <body>
elementsβ¦
But there are actually a bunch more hidden in the dark realms of the W3C reference. Thatβs why, in this article, I took the liberty of diving deep into the HTML documentation, to come out with a handy bag of elements that will improve your website in not one, but two very important ways: accessibility and SEO.
Press Ctrl
+D
to bookmark this article and easily come back to it when you need it. And with that said, letβs begin!
π <abbr>
β Abbreviation
This elements represents both abbreviations (like Corporation β Corp.) and acronyms (like Cascading Style Sheets β CSS). Additionally, you can use its title
attribute to write the full form of the word so that screen readers can read it and users can hover over it to read it.
π <ins>
and <del>
β Insert and Delete
The <ins>
and <del>
elements represent a range of text that has been added or deleted to a document. You may have already seen these elements in the Github Pull Requests.
π <dfn>
, <var>
, <kbd>
, <samp>
, and <output>
β Technical Elements
These are elements that represent special technically-oriented parts in a document, like definitions, variables, keystrokes, etcβ¦
π <bdo>
β Text Directionality
This element changes the directionality of text to make it render backwards. You can control its behavior using the dir
attribute.
Although not its intended use, but it can reverse text using nothing but HTML!
π <mark>
β Highlighting Text
The purpose of this element is to highlight text like you would with a marker.
π <area>
β Clickable Image Areas
You can use this element to make certain areas of your image behave like links!
π <dl>
, <dd>
, and <dt>
β Description Lists
You can use these elements to create a semantically-accurate description list where you define multiple terms in one block of text.
π <sup>
and <sub>
β Superscripts and Subscripts
With these two elements, you can add superscripts (like xΒ²) and subscripts (like xβ) to your document.
π <figure>
and <figcaption>
β Labeled Images
You can use <figure>
to contain any element that you want, like an image for example. And then, you add <figcaption>
as its last child, where you can add a block of text that describes whatβs above it.
π <progress>
and <meter>
β Marking Progress
This one allows you to create semantically-right progress-bar elements where you show how far an action is from being finished.
π <details>
β Expandable Menus
You can use this element to create a native menu that has a title and can expand using a button. No JavaScript needed.
π <dialog>
β Pop-up Dialogs
Itβs possible to create semantically-accurate dialogs using this element. It doesnβt do much by itself, so you have to use CSS and JavaScript to add more functionality.
π <datalist>
β Text Input Suggestions
This element lets you manually add text-input suggestions. You can add anything you want!
π <fieldset>
β Grouping Form Elements
Keep your forms tidy and more user-friendly by using the <fieldset>
element.
π <object>
β Embedding External Objects
With this amazing element, you can embed almost any file you want to your website! The most commonly supported files are PDFs, Youtube videos, etcβ¦
π <noscript>
β If JavaScript Is Disabled
This element can be used to show some content when JavaScript is disabled by the browser. Itβs very commonly used by websites that heavily depend on JavaScript, like Single Page Applications (SPAs).
If you found this guide useful, please donβt forget to bookmark it for future reference.
I make posts like this everyday, so please follow me to stay informed. β€οΈ
[Deleted User]
Posted on April 11, 2022
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