TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Best way to indent in HTML From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 28 Jan 1999 16:38:48 -0800
Scott asked:
>> I want to indent text between headings in HTML, like this:
>><snip examples using <BLOCKQUOTE> and <UL> with <P>
>> Which is best? Any dangers to either method?
<blockquote> is a great idea on modern, graphical browsers. The caveat is
that on some antique, text-based browsers the paragraph may only look like
an e-mail quote -- you know, with greater-than signs at the left.
You could put the paragraph in a table and use either cell padding or
an empty cell on the left, but tables were new in HTML 3.0, so if you're
dealing with antique browsers, they wouldn't work any better than the
blockquote tag would -- and blockquote is a heck of a lot easier than
constructing a table.
Ed suggested using a definition list -- definition list tags are old
stuff and should work in most browsers the way you want them to, but
if you really want the left-aligned paragraph to look like a heading,
you'll have to do all the font-change stuff manually.
Lastly, I don't think there are any repercussions from creating an
unordered list without any list items. Worst-case scenario is that
some renegade browser will throw a bullet in front of the text.
(famous last words!)
