User:Inductiveload/Sandbox/Markup problems

Some Wikicode markup produces output that is problematic for various reasons, including:
 * The Mediawiki software considers it an error
 * Browsers don't handle it reliably
 * E-readers don't handle it reliably
 * It doesn't work "responsively" on smaller screens
 * It is semantically incorrect

Obsolete HTML tags
Some "traditional" HTML tags are now obsolete. This is mostly because HTML tags are semantically structural elements and should not be used for styling purposes. For example:,   &  ,   and.

Using these tags will result in the page being listed at Special:LintErrors/obsolete-tag. Most of these tags are deprecated by current web standards

Alternatives are generally provided by templates which apply styling through CSS rules (the second S in CSS is "style"):


 * : center.
 * : larger
 * : smaller
 * : depending on what it's used for: a size template, a color template like red or similar
 * : monospace

align
HTML attributes like  are often not supported by renders, or are interpreted differently. The use the  attribute is deprecated by web standards.

in a table is often used to center the table in the page, but most e-readers and other renderers will left-align the table on the page and centre the text within the table. The correct way to achieve this is to use  in the table style:

and  for aligning cells should be done with the CSS   property.

should use the CSS  property.

Some HTML attributes are indeed structural and are correct. For example,  and.

Avoid using tables for styling
Tables should not be used as styling mechanic, the HTML  element is for tabular data,   and   are for textual data.

Using tables for styling was common in the early days of the Internet, but CSS is now the preferred way to separate structural and stylistic data.


 * To align content in the centre of a page: block center
 * To align content on the right of a page: block right