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MLANET Style Guide

Coding Preferences

MLANET follows the coding conventions established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for Transitional HTML 4.01. MLA has devised some additional preferences.

Alt and Title Tags

Use an alt tag and title tag for every graphic item.

Anchors

Set anchors with numbers beginning with "1" on any Web page. Do not use words or abbreviations; they are more difficult to code and correct in longer documents.

Set each anchor two lines above the appropriate header so that the type appears below the top window margin when opened.

All pages should include a "top" anchor at the top of the page to support any "top of page" graphics.

Capitalization

Capitalize each word in subheads. Do not type any words in all caps.

Centering

Only center tables and table of contents boxes. Some illustrations and photographs may also be centered. Header 2 is the only centered type. All other copy should be flush left. Do not justify any text.

Downloads

Indicate that an item is available to download by using the download graphic ( or ) and list the file type and size in parentheses (e.g., PDF, 23KB).

Email Links

Do not list the email address. Highlight the person' or institution's name and use the <mailto> tag to link to a mailbox. Include a subject line for every hot email address.
For example: <mailto:info@mlahq.org?subject=Donations>.

Linked Graphics

Delete any additional character spaces after any link tags for a graphic. Otherwise, the extra space will appear as an empty underline next to the graphic in some browsers (applies to text between <a href> and </a> tags). Do not include a border around graphics that serve as links.

Linked Text

Delete any additional character spaces after any linked text in a bulleted list. Otherwise, the extra space will appear as an empty underline on the final page (applies to text between <a href> and </a> tags).

Paragraph Tag

Use the paragraph format for all copy and graphics, except in tables. The <p> setting in the MLANET cascading style sheet sets the left margin properly. Without the <p> and </p> tags, text and graphics will appear too close to the left border.

Paragraph, Indented Tag

Should you need to indent or "blockquote" a full paragraph of text that is not bulleted or numbered, we prefer not using the <blockquote> tag, as some older browsers do not support it. Instead, use a modified paragraph tag, <p class="indent">, which you can define in your site's cascading style sheet.