Re: aside and figure elements

Hi Dean,

Using <caption> element for a generalized captioning element seems to
be to be a good idea but there are legacy parsing issues. Check:
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=6543

Leif has previously suggested using <summary> or <subject>.

Best Regards,
Laura

On 6/7/10, Dean Leigh <dean.leigh@deanleigh.co.uk> wrote:
> If the main aim of <figure><figcaption> etc is to ensure that
> images/video/tables/content blocks have captions then would a combination of
> an ID and something like the for="" as used in form labels suffice?
>
> Example 1 - Image only:
>
> <img id="img100" alt="A dog on a bike.">
> <caption for="img100">Proof that animals can ride bikes</caption>
>
> The author could then choose whether the alt text should match the caption
> as I can find reasons why it would and wouldn’t.
>
> Example 2 - Image and Table:
>
> <aside id="aside100" >
> <img alt="A dog on a bike.">
> <table>
> <tr><td>Dogs Bike</td><td>£50.00</td></tr>
> <tr><td>Cats Bike</td><td>£40.00</td></tr>
> <tr><td>Budgies Bike</td><td>£30.00</td></tr>
> </table>
> </aside>
> <caption for="aside100">Our three best selling animal bikes</caption>
>
> (Possibly using JavaScript or CSS on rollover of the rows to show <img
> alt="A cat on a bike.">, <img alt="A budgie on a bike.">)
>
> I have deliberately added this to an <aside> to show that even <asides> may
> need captions.
> Also as a real world example as this could easily be in the right hand
> column of a page about cycling animals.
> It could equally have been in the main copy as <article id="art100"> +
> <caption for="art100">
>
> At one of my companies we have gone to a great deal of trouble to ensure
> that our CMS maintains best practice without the less technical users being
> aware (when adding images to the image library the "Friendly name" becomes
> the alt text) but the more technical users have the option to over-ride this
> in the advanced interface. An example would be <img alt=“Nice cat”>
> appearing as <div class=”caption”>Nice cat</div> below the image
> automatically with an Advanced option to edit the caption on or after adding
> the image. We still have trouble getting people to use headings in the
> correct order of course and this is my point, not all content providers are
> technical and will struggle to use "unclearly defined" mark-up correctly.
> Please note the difference between unclear and complex.
> Please also note the Budgies Bikes go cheap!
>
> Regards,
> Dean Leigh

-- 
Laura L. Carlson

Received on Tuesday, 8 June 2010 08:56:38 UTC