HEADINGS, As much of a b*tch as a Question Options

[UptonGirl]

But a question still.


Web standards demand that H1 be used only once per page.

The others may be used multiple times (if I understand correctly) but must be in order.

I can't see the reason in this. I presume there is one, and someone will know what it is. Hopefully someone who will explain it to me.

At the moment - it reminds me of some of my Bostonian childhood rules - such as under what circumstances a lady (read: any human female showing, or soon to show, any sign of puberty) must, or must not, wear gloves and what color, and length -- wrist length and white with only the slightest detail for the street, thank you.

Common conversation with my 20-something son - who was raised in a semi-rural hippie-esque world:

Son, looking at old snapshots:

Mom, you're in a sleeveless dress here, so it wasn't cold. But, you have on gloves! Why gloves? Was there something wrong with your hands?

Me:

No, dear - it was just the mid-60's in Boston.

Son:

Huh?

That's the b* part - now the question:

WHY?

If I like a size or style I have set for a heading - and want to use it in a spot that is "out of order" what's the problem? Yes, I can recreate the style with a css tag. But again why?

I understand this hierarchy is custom - but does it have a function? If so, what is it?

This post has been edited by UptonGirl: Aug 26 2009, 12:07 AM

[Darin McGrew]

I use headings in whatever way best fits the structure of the content. I haven't found a situation where more than one H1 was appropriate, but I have found situations where skipping levels was appropriate. Specifically, when I had a bunch of "items" that were grouped into sections, and some (but not all) sections were big enough to have sub-sections, I used the following hierarchy:

H1 : top-level heading for entire document
. . . H2 : section heading
. . . . . . H3 : sub-section heading (optional)
. . . . . . . . . H4 : item heading

This makes more sense to me than using H3 for some of the items, and using H4 for others.