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RE: skip to content, where and how many?

for

From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Mar 1, 2002 7:46AM

It is perfectly logical to have an empty anchor specifying a position in a
page to which a link can jump. When you require that the anchor enclose text
of the content, then it has to be coded for every page and is not part of
the template. There is no "implementation" of a Local target for a link
beyond being a position in the document. The user agents I use implement
this just fine, namely, when I follow a link to that empty anchor the page
is repositioned with that appropriate part of the document at the top.

Jim
<EMAIL REMOVED>
Accessibility Consulting
http://jimthatcher.com
512-306-0931

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 12:47 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: RE: skip to content, where and how many?



Jim Thatcher wrote:

> I think many don't realize that <A name="skiptarget"></A> is just fine.

I'm afraid too many people think it's just fine.

> No content is necessary.

So how are user agents supposed to implement elements with empty content?
Saying nothing, showing nothing, is the most obvious approach.

Admittedly, for <a name="..."></a>, the situation is somewhat different.
But user agents have been reported to ignore such elements. Odd, in a way,
but why take unnecessary risks? Besides, it's illogical.

Normally
<h2><a name="...">...</a></h2>
or similar construct with a lower level heading is. Even more logically,
one would use <div id="...">...</div> to specify the _part_ of a document
referred to (not just a starting location), but this has more limited
browser support.

--
Jukka K. Korpela, erityisasiantuntija / senior adviser
TIEKE Tietoyhteiskunnan kehitt