Indents

[Thomas Dowling]

I'm a little disappointed at the seeming willingness on this list to
recommend deliberately broken HTML structures to kludge together a solution
to a formatting problem.  IMO this is akin to squeezing awkward cataloging
data into the wrong MARC field on the presumption that it will come out
looking right on most OPACs.  <UL> defines an unordered list.  <DL> defines
a definition list, like a glossary.  <BLOCKQUOTE> defines, umm, a block of
quoted material.

Dirty solutions like multiple <UL> or <DL> tags with no <LI> or <DT> do in
fact work on a certain percentage of browsers, possibly a very high
percentage.  But you are left with absolutely no guarantee that the next
hot browser will choose to display these structural elements the way the
current hot browsers do; in fact it's quite likely that a browser will come
along that will allow the *user* to determine how an unordered list will be
presented (indented with bullets? change of font? change of background
color?).  If you're satisfied with serving users with Netscape 1.2, 2.0,
3.0, and don't mind the possibility of having to rewrite all your documents
next year, and don't envision ever indexing your site, I guess you can go
ahead.

In cases where formatting elements like indentation are really necessary
for the document, there are lots of options, with varying degrees of
support and elegance:


Present the document as .txt rather than .html.  Pros: universal support. 
Cons: monospaced font, lack of hypertext links, no pretty logo.

Slap <PRE>...</PRE> around the text of the document.  Pros: universal
support, pretty logo at the top, hypertext links.  Cons: monospaced font.

PDF.  Pros: you're using a page description language, which is what you
really need.  Cons: requires commercial software to create the file, less
than universal support, possible charges from some quarters of being
elitist and a pawn in Adobe's attempt to take over the world. :-)

Distribute in a word processor format (most likely Word).  Pros: layout
control similar to PDF, many users can edit the document once they have it.
 Cons: requires a compatible word processor or Word viewer, possible
charges of being elitist and a pawn in Microsoft's attempt to take over the
world.

Style sheets.  Pros: in line with a standard that is both supported by the
web community and gaining favor among some browser manufacturers, lets you
define or redefine a style (e.g. P.indent1) once for your entire site and
reference it from any document with a <P class="indent1"> tag.  Cons: very
limited support as of 8/1/96.

<SPACER> tag.  Pros: will probably be supported by 40%-50% of your users
within a couple months.  Cons: another kludge from the gang at Tags-R-Us.

<TABLE> tag e.g.
<tr><td colspan=4>Top level paragraph.
  <tr><td> <td colspan=3>Second level paragraph
Pros: fairly wide support.  Cons: less than universal support, memory
problems on some platforms if the document gets too long.

Preface each line with <PRE>[spaces]</PRE> and end each line with <BR>. 
Pros: fairly wide support.  Cons: looks really ugly if the previous line
wraps in a window narrower than you expected, some browsers mistakenly slap
a line feed after the </PRE> tag.

Preface each line with &nbsp;&nbsp;... Pros: fairly wide support.  Cons:
same line wrap problems as above, no rule that multiple nbsp entities
shouldn't be collapsed into a single space (the rule only says no line
break there).

Preface each line with one or more tab-sized, completely transparent GIFs. 
Pros: fairly wide support.  Cons: line wraps, *really* ugly for people
using graphical browsers with the graphics turned off.

<UL>/<DL>/<BLOCKQUOTE> kludge described in previous posts.  Pros: will
"look right" to many users.  Cons: violates the spirit and sometimes the
letter of the HTML law, may get mild grumblings from some validation
services, HTML editors, grumpy old Web4Libbers, etc.


Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu
(This is a dream.  I'm going to wake up, it will be the summer of 1995, and
all known browser manufacturers will be presenting beta versions supporting
all of the newly formalized HTML 3.0, including style sheets and the <TAB>
tag.  Also, I will have won the lottery the night before.)