Since the mists of HTML 2 we’ve been able to semantically indicate added or removed information using the elements <ins> and <del> respectively. While seemingly simple on the surface these elements have hidden depths. I’ll also compare and contrast <del> with <s>, recently out of font style rehab and back in HTML5. Let’s start with <ins> and <del>… Using ins and del These two elements have very si

Recently, <main> was formally added to the W3C HTML specification. Now that the dust has settled, it’s about time we dive in to find out where and when it’s appropriate to use <main>. Let’s get started. History The inclusion of a main element (or similar) has long been debated in the working groups with authors and others often questioning why we had new elements such as <header>, <article>, and <

No doubt you interact with at least one form on the Web every day. Whether you’re searching for content or logging in to your e-mail account or Facebook page, using online forms is one of the most common tasks performed on the Web. As designers and developers, creating forms has a certain monotony about it, particularly writing validation scripts for them. HTML5 introduces a number of new attribut

This is a follow up to my 2009 article Native Audio in the Browser, which covers the basics of HTML5 audio. It may well be worth reading if you want to get a feel for the <audio> element and associated API. Now, two and a half years later, it’s time to see how things are progressing. With many new advanced audio APIs being actively worked on and plenty of improvements to the existing native audio

It’s time we had “the talk”. I could get you a book or recommend some sites from Dr Mike’s special bookmarks folder, but the best way to make sure you get the right idea is to do it myself. I’m talking about HTML semantics. Understanding the thinking behind the naming of elements will help your markup shine. Semantics and the Web # Semantics are the implied meaning of a subject, like a word or sen

Hello! I’m Doctor Peter and I’m here to treat you with a dose of complementary CSS3. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit. Contrary to what HTML5 Please and the W3C would have you believe, CSS3 is not part of HTML5. “But this is HTML5 Doctor,” I imagine you saying. “Why are you talking about CSS3 here?” Well, I want to talk about a very specific part of CSS3, one that works in perfect tandem with HT

The scoped attribute for the <style> element allows you to include styles mid-document that targets a specific element and its children. Depending upon how you look at this, it’ll either be a godsend or a curse. Once you’ve reached the end of this article, I hope you can form your own opinion. Let’s take a quick look at the spec: The scoped attribute is a boolean attribute. If set, it indicates th

Through our handy Ask The Doctor service, we get a lot of e-mails asking us about HTML5’s effect on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). While we can’t answer in great detail (Messrs Google, Yahoo, Bing, and their friends haven’t sent us in-depth details of their algorithms), we’ve rounded up some useful facts from Google, the world’s most dominant search engine. At the moment, Google indexes HTML5 m

For those who like (to argue about) semantics, HTML5 is fantastic. Old presentational elements now have new semantic meanings, there’s a slew of new semantic elements for us to argue about, and we've even in<cite>d a riot or two. But that's not all! Also in HTML5 is microdata, a new lightweight semantic meta-syntax. Using attributes, we can define nestable groups of name-value pairs of data, calle

While HTML5 has a bunch of semantic elements, including new ones like <article> and <nav>, sometimes there just isn’t an element with the right meaning. What we want are ways to extend what we’ve got, to add extra semantics that are machine-readable — data that a browser, script, or robot can use. Native ways to extend HTML There were five fundamental ways we could extend HTML 4: <meta> element cl

“Sorry, can you say that again?”, I hear you ask. Certainly: you can still use <div>! Despite HTML5 bringing us new elements like <article>, <section>, and <aside>, the <div> element still has its place. Let the HTML5 Doctor tell you why. Status: Unchanged In HTML 4, the <div> element was defined to be a generic element for structuring a page. Although you can allude to the nature of its content b