LearnPress Publication Guide » Style guide

2.1 Headings

LearnPress version: 1.5

Last modified: 9 September 2008

Headings in HTML

Heading elements in HTML come in six levels:

• h1
• h2
• h3
• h4
• h5
• h6

h1 is of highest importance. It is reserved by LearnPress for page titles and should not be used in the body of a page. h5 and h6 are rarely used (by default in most browsers they display smaller than the normal text size).

Correct markup. Do not mark up headings using <b> or <strong>! Inline headings may occasionally be used (see below), but headings that appear on their own line should be marked up as headings. Correct markup aids search engine optimization, accessibility by screen readers, and consistent visual display.

Nesting headings. Headings should always be nested correctly: The first subheading under an h2 element should always be h3, and so on. This is not only good practice but ensures that scripts generating page contents will work correctly.

Headings in LearnPress fields

Body text

Since h1 is reserved for the page title, the highest-level heading in the body text should be h2.

Sidebar

The sidebar has no default heading (other than the page title), so the highest-level heading in the sidebar should be h2.

Footer

The footer has no default heading (other than the page title), so the highest-level heading in the footer should be h2.

Commentary

General page commentary (e.g. on primary sources) appears in the sidebar under a heading <h2>Notes</h2>, so the highest-level heading in the page comments should be h3.

Style in headings

Headings, including titles, should use sentence case: That is, only the first word, the first word after a colon, and any proper nouns or adjectives should be capitalized. An exception is when the heading includes the title of another work, in which case title case should be used.

Inline headings

An inline heading is text that serves as the heading for a single paragraph or list item that is displayed within (at the beginning of) that paragraph of list item. Inline headings are marked with the <strong> tag.

Inline headings may be used in the following cases:

• When the heading applies to a single paragraph and is of minor importance and correct nesting would dictate a high-level heading.
• When the heading applies to a single paragraph and the paragraphs after it do not have separate headings, so that a block heading would seem to apply to more material than is the case.
• When headings for list items are desired.