Lesson Overview

This lesson focuses on the HTML elements that allow you to format and add meaning to text in a page/application. For example, you might want to identifiy a portion of text as a date and time for screen readers and so that the date/time can be captured by a script or calendar application, or you might want to display a quote or poem on a page with specific spacing and line formatting. Most of these elements are semantic, so keep in mind that they'll also be useful in identifying the meaning of text to screen readers.

Prerequisites

It's important that you understand the syntax of HTML, and the minimal HTML code for valid web documents, the basics of HTML elements, and how to create valid HTML code.

Elements for Text-Level Semantics

Text-Level Semantics is just a fancy phrase for formatting text. These elements are in-line elements that give some kind of meaning or formatting to a bit of in-line text. For example, you might wish to style a word or phrase, you might wish to define a word or phrase as a quote or definition, or you might want a word or phrase to be a clickable hyperlink.

Here are the elements covered in this and later tutorials: