Heading levels in asides

  • This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 1 year ago by krollans.
Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 5 total)
Heading levels in asides thread
Author Posts
krollans

Hi folks,

I’m working on a book with a very complex heading structure (six levels of headings) as well as asides. I’m running up against a potential problem: The asides are correctly marked up as asides, but the main aside headings are tagged as h3, meaning that these headings occasionally mess up the heading hierarchy (e.g., going from an h4 in the running text to the aside h3 then back to the running text h5). This is coming up as a violation in ACE. Because the section is marked as an aside, will the aside h3 actually mess up the reading order, or is this okay?

 

Thanks!

Laura Brady

I think that ACE tests to the spirit of the rule instead of the nuances of a document. Because we are talking about asides, it should be exempt from the strict content hierarchy. As long as you are consistent among types of asides, then you are minding the structure.

Does that help?

krollans

Thanks, Laura. Yes, that helps.

One more question… or set of questions: In terms of consistency, I’m guessing that means tagging each “box” aside as the same heading level—is that correct? Ideally, should this be a heading level that isn’t used somewhere else in the document? Or is it enough to link the heading level—whichever one we choose, and even if it’s used in different contexts in the book—to the box title style (so, for example, h3 class=”BoxT”)?

 

Thanks!

Laura Brady

If you have 10 asides that are “Did You Know?” type things, they should all have the same header level and class. Same for tips and tricks, dictionary-type sidebars etc. You should have consistency among asides of the same type.

Does that make sense?

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 5 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Want to join the discussion?

a wooden table with a white keyboard on top, and a persons hand writing on a piece of paper

View our current resources