RE: HTML 5.1, Citations, Quotations, References, and Footnotes

HTML Working Group,
 
On the topic of digital books and textbooks, EPUB 3 Structural Semantics Vocabulary (http://idpf.org/epub/vocab/structure) describes some structural semantics and HTML5 usages pertinent to citations, quotations, references and footnotes, including with <section>, <aside> and <a> elements.  In the EPUB3 format, an epub:type attribute adds semantics to HTML elements including <section>, <aside> and <a> elements.

Some structural semantics are described for notes (http://idpf.org/epub/vocab/structure/#h_notes).  The HTML5 usage context described is that of <aside> elements.  Footnotes, rearnotes, margin notes, and other sorts of document notes, could be implemented in HTML 5.1 with <note> elements.  Styling of footnotes is discussed at http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-gcpm/#footnotes, and, based upon that, various values for float could, in conjunction with other styling, differentiate note types.

Some structural semantics are at the granularity of sentences or words (http://idpf.org/epub/vocab/structure/#h_document-text). Sentence elements, e.g. <s> or <sentence>, could be an HTML 5.1 feature. 

Some structural semantics are described for citing references and cross-referencing document elements (http://idpf.org/epub/vocab/structure/#h_links).  The HTML5 usage context described is that of <a> elements.  Possible for HTML 5.1 is that elements including <a> elements, <blockquote> elements, <cite> elements, possibly with a @cite attribute, <q> elements, or new elements, such as <ref> could be utilized.  Some styling topics are discussed at: http://dev.w3.org/csswg/selectors4/#idref-combinators, http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-gcpm/#cross-references, http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/generate.html#counters, and http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-lists/.

Some structural semantics are described for bibliographies (http://idpf.org/epub/vocab/structure/#h_bibliographies). The described element <reference> could be for referenced materials in bibliography and references sections.


 
Kind regards,
 
Adam Sobieski