10 overused and abused HTML tags
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Which HTML tags are the most overused and abused?
1. Marquee.
Yes, that's the stuff that moves from side to side, or that scrolls up the screen like the credits at the end of a movie. Well, a marquee may very well be the end of your blog if you insist on using it. Lose it!
2. Blink.
On, off. On, off. On, off. It! Feels! Like! You're! Writing! Like! This!
Thankfully, some browsers don't support this anymore, but blinking text does still appear from time to time. Wait, I wanted to read that, but it's blinking on and off and I only read a few letters before it disappears again!
3. Horizontal rule.
Basically, a line that goes across the screen. Can be useful, but should be used sparingly. When you use ten of them in one post, it's probably too much.
4. Image.
An image here, an image there, that's fine - in fact it's better than a wall of text. It's much nicer for readers to read posts with an image thrown in somewhere.
But if you go overboard with images in your posts, along with images for all of your headers (not just at the top of the site - the ones in the posts, too) then it's too much. Far, far too much. It'll slow down your site, too.
5. Font.
I could write a whole post about fonts. Come to think of it, I already have!
The main problem here is when you see lots of different fonts, different sizes, different colours... it just looks messy.
Stick to a couple of fonts and a consistent colour scheme. Lots and lots of variety will make your blog look like a Christmas tree. Of course, if that's the point of your site, maybe you don't need me to say it's a bad idea...
6. Bold/Italic/Underline.
It would be a bit of a cop-out to split these into separate points, so I thought I'd roll them up here. A bit of bold or italic text is fine, the problem is when you try to highlight every other sentence in your posts.
Use bold sparingly! Use italic sparingly! And don't use underlined text at all, unless you want people trying to click on it and wondering why the text is underlined if it's not a link.
7. Center.
I quite like a blog that is centred on the page, if the content doesn't span the full width of the page. But don't make all of your text centre-aligned. Well, unless your blog is a restaurant menu. Then it might just work.
8. Object/Embed.
Autoplaying audio is bad. Really, really bad. I'm not a big fan of Java applets either. They just seem gimmicky and unnecessary. Best to avoid them.
Audio is fine if it's in a music player that doesn't autostart. Here's some music that doesn't start automatically. That's the way to do it!
9. Script.
Some scripts are really useful. Some, though, are awful.
My wife has been selling some of our stuff on ebay, and while browsing similar products, she came across a page with snowflakes raining all over the page.
Why?!!
10. List.
Seems like everyone likes lists. There are so many that were obviously cobbled together in a hurry, that don't contain anything of any value, or where the list has far more items than it needs to just to pad it out.
Of course, I wouldn't know anything about that...
How many of these have you seen recently? Can you think of any more?
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Comments on 10 overused and abused HTML tags
2
Bold and italic can be used sparingly but this becomes a problem when the typeface is used to simulate headings. There is a specific heading structure that has to be adhered to. This causes a major problem for the visually impaired who have to listen to your content.
Let's not forget about tables. These things should be used for tabular data and nothing else. Do people still use marquees?
3
Fair enough. But how about tags that aren't used enough? Like JUSTIFY! I absolutely realize that this is my OCD wanting everything to be super-neat... I hate it when the text is even on the left, but sloppy on the right!
4
:-D <--- on the last one!
5
How about boxes? Putting everything in tiny, separate boxes is here from the late 90s, but they are much more overused than blinking (thank god, I haven't recently seen any sites with blinking text)
6
Another great post Ben. The great thing about bold text is that it helps your search engine optimization. That's why you should only use it sparingly.
7
As a graphic designer, I think there is nothing wrong with left justified text. A bit of white space is good :O) As for the things you mention, most things can be used SPARINGLY to help the look of a post, except mixing colours - and of course, the blinking text!
Not only do some have automatic music, but some have auto-play videos! One even has an animated header that freezes my browser every time it loads! I wish they would stop dropping on me ;O)
8
Indeed!
Perhaps you could follow up with an under-used post? Such as headings, semantic IDs and classes, definition lists...
9
[4. Image.]
Well, nowadays I mainly blog about flash games and I believe that images help with the presentation of the games. :)
I do keep it to a certain amount, both the number of images and the total file size.
Something like 10 plus minus 2 images per post. Total file size I try to keep it below 1 MB, preferably 500k or less.
Nowadays, most people have fast internet connection, right? :D
10
Thanks for the comments everyone. :D
Lyndi - formatting text to look like a header when it isn't a header is a silly thing to do. So I agree. :) And yes, some people do still use marquees...
tata, kristarella, perhaps a follow-up for the underused tags is a good idea - I've already started planning it!
Zsolt - a box isn't a HTML tag :)
Deimos - don't rely on everyone having a fast Internet connection. Some people still use dial-up, and an increasing number of people are browsing with mobile devices. Then again, it's also fair to say you can't cater for absolutely everyone. But it's best not to cut people out if you want maximum exposure.
11
But the blink is, lyke totes awesome!11! And the combination of blink and marquee? Well, who wouldn't want that fantastic seizure-inducing feeling?
Another great post. The second I see just one too many uses of <blink> and/or <marquee >, I always assume it's a 13 year old MySpacer. Not a fair assumption, but well... Too often people don't simply rely on the default font of a page. The <font> and <small> are definitely overused on sights like LiveJournal.
Of course, maybe I shouldn't complain. I am just a little too fond of <i>italics</i>.
Are there any you'd like to see used more often like the link tag or a paragraph break?
12
I am guilty of using some of them. I hate those blogs with audio too. I especially hate those that use those flashy blinking text. Yay!
I prefer those that are simple and clean. Like this one. ;)
13
I prefer left justified text on the whole, especially if the paragraphs are long. It makes reading much easier. Images, hmm, I may guilty of that one, though not in post headers, and I do try to keep them a reasonable size. I've come across the animated header Babs is talking about - nightmare!
14
MoJo - I'm planning a follow-up post for the tags that are underused. ;)
15
I like to think that I'm not guilty of overusing any of these.
:D
16
Damnit...
So yeah, not guilty of any of these and I completely agree with all of these. Too much of any one of them in a post or even on any of the posts on the front page is just a big no-no for me!
Love the photo you choose for this too Ben :)
17
1. The thing I hate the most is imbedded SWF's or other extensions that require me to add yet another program to my computer in order to view them.
2a. It's never a good sign when a site opens up with these few words: "Best viewed at 1024x768 in IE v.?", or worse still,
2b. Adjusts it's width/height to the aforementioned dimensions and centres the browser window to my desktop.
18
Stephen - #1 is probably covered by Object/Embed. 2a and 2b are not HTML tags ;)
19
Blink is my pet peeve.
20
I am so glad I saw this! These are 10 of my biggest irritations when designing a web page for a client who is not web savvy. Folks have a tendency to ask for these type of things without realizing the negative impact that they have on their audience.
21
Did he just say blinking text?????????
lol dude, that died out with the dinosaurs.
It looks cheesy, it doesn't work the way you want half the time, and its just! plain! wrong!
lol, blinking text, you should be a comedian.
22
Hi jblogit - you do realise this is a post of overused HTML tags? As in, things I think are way overused, and I would not recommend? Hope so. There is no way I'm recommending that people use blinking text :)
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Horizontal Lines are great in themes, but 1 per post. Images should be small, resized to fit in a photo editor, not by using HTML. Bold and italics have SEO uses too. Not to mention they break up blogs with monotonous text. People shouldn't fear to use them, but not entire paragraphs in bold. Same with lists, they nicely alter a post by formatting information in a way we can better digest it. I love unordered lists. How do you run a top ten list blog and bash lists? How dare you! Finally, scripts should not be on a page to make it cute.