Web Semantics in Design
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XHTML 1.1 - Served as application/xhtml+xml

Web Semantics

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Semantic HTML

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Emphasis

<em> is used for emphasis, and <strong> for strong emphasis. Most web browsers display emphasized text in italics, and strongly emphasized text in bold. However, this is not a requirement, so to be sure how emphasized text is displayed, it is best to use CSS to specify their presentation. Avoid using emphasis when all you really want is a visual effect.

Example:
<p><em>Emphasized</em> text is normally displayed in italics, while <strong>strongly emphasized</strong> text is usually displayed in bold.</p>

Emphasized text is normally displayed in italics, while strongly emphasized text is usually displayed in bold.

Tables

XHTML tables should not be used for layout. For marking up tabular data, however, tables are what should be used. To make data tables as accessible as possible it is important to know about and use the various components that can make up a table. A few examples are table headings (<th>), summaries (the summary attribute), and captions (the <caption> element).

Example:
<table class="example" summary="This table shows the annual population increase in Sweden during the years 1999 to 2003."> <caption>Annual population increase in Sweden, 1999–2003</caption> <thead> <tr> <td>&#160;</td> <th scope="col">1999</th> <th scope="col">2000</th> <th scope="col">2001</th> <th scope="col">2002</th> <th scope="col">2003</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <th>Population</th> <td scope="row">8 861 426</td> <td scope="row">8 882 792</td> <td scope="row">8 909 128</td> <td scope="row">8 940 788</td> <td scope="row">8 975 670</td> </tr> <tr> <th>Increase</th> <td scope="row">7 104</td> <td scope="row">21 366</td> <td scope="row">26 368</td> <td scope="row">31 884</td> <td scope="row">34 882</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Annual population increase in Sweden, 1999–2003
  1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Population 8 861 426 8 882 792 8 909 128 8 940 788 8 975 670
Increase 7 104 21 366 26 368 31 884 34 882