Comments on: Customising your blog – some basic principles (Online Journalism Handbook)

By: Basic HTML Tag Tutorial « Manasiya MohsinHusen

Basic HTML Tag Tutorial « Manasiya MohsinHusen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:06:33 +0000

[...] Customising your blog – some basic principles (Online Journalism Handbook) (onlinejournalismblog.com) [...]

By: Bookmarks for October 18th to October 23rd | Track 23

Bookmarks for October 18th to October 23rd | Track 23 — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:11:52 +0000

[...] Customising your blog – some basic principles (Online Journalism Handbook) | Online Journalism… – A good summing by Paul Brasdshaw up of what to look for to customise any blog [...]

By: Paul Bradshaw

Paul Bradshaw — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:51:47 +0000

I think the tags were stripped out – any clues?

By: Paul Bradshaw

Paul Bradshaw — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:05:41 +0000

Thanks Lorelle – the example does include the title and alt selectors (attributes). But that comes a couple lines after starting with the most basic attribute (href) and building from there. My judgement call was that starting with 3 different selectors would have made it harder to understand.

Also, this was not a tutorial in writing HTML but in customising style, i.e. CSS, so there’s a different objective here.

I have clarified the lines after the alt/title example to emphasise the need for these and point to your comment, so thanks for highlighting it.

PS: I’m not sure what the first example of HTML is that you refer to when you say the entities need correcting – can you provide more detail?

By: Lorelle

Lorelle — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:49:15 +0000

Good overview for journalists, however you are doing them a disservice in a few places. The HTML anchor (link) and image tags are not properly formed and the showcased usage violates web standards for accessibility, and could result in fines and penalties if published that way on public, government, or other qualified sites covered by each country’s equal access laws. The UK and Canada have some of the strongest laws and the US is catching up next year.

A properly formed link must include the “title” selector (attribute) to describe the destination link. The image must include the alternative description (ALT) and/or the optional “title” description in order to comply with web standards.

These are also key areas that influence SEO, so they are good for many reasons.

Writing in HTML is also highly recommended for journalists to learn. It’s faster than dealing with WYSIWYG editors and allow more control over the final outcome. This doesn’t mean they have to learn a new language or become a programmer. There are 9-11 core HTML tags used in all web posts/articles, not much more than the average number of words a person learns while traveling in a foreign country. Most are easy like strong and emphasis as they match word processing structures.

This is a good overview but let’s not forget the most basic rules that protect not just the writer but the hosting publication and makes the page readable and accessible by all.

PS: Please fix the first example of HTML to correct the HTML character entities so it makes sense and is more readable. Thanks.

By: james crawford

james crawford — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:28:42 +0000

This is a good post. It is important to understand these terms like CSS, HTML etc etc so you can talk to techies, or understand how your content is presented and why.

I don’t think that the majority of journalists need to worry too much about this though, especially if they use a user friendly CMS like WordPress.

Good on you if you do learn all this though

By: Sergi Xaudiera

Sergi Xaudiera — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:30:41 +0000

Paul, nice post as usual!

On the html part I would have added some HTML5 for example new tags as:

By: Addition: Customising your blog « Online Journalism Handbook

Addition: Customising your blog « Online Journalism Handbook — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:26:34 +0000

[...] at the Online Journalism Blog I’ve posted an extra section on basic principles in customising a blog. The post covers the 3 main languages used in blogs – CSS, HTML and PHP – how those [...]