[Suggestion] Implementing H1 Headings without coding

[remi]

The question should be the other way around:
Why are Xara Ltd. developing tools with ignoring the former and current hints of a lot of more experienced Webexperts? What is it good for, if a product is of no use for including in a professional workflow?

Not your customers have to argue, why they work with other tools. Instead, Xara Ltd. has to think over the valid critiques of some forum members and has to change their product. Otherwise Xara Ltd. will see no further hints and - what they need much more - our money. It's easy, isn't it?

As I said, I'm in hope to see some of the discussed changes in two years. Please start with the work just today.

Regards,
Remi

[kingonlineuk]

Originally Posted by Charles Moir
“...having H1 tags, this is not something we'd offer.
“Why would we start complicating the product with some technical gubbins that few people will understand, especially when it has no actual benefit?”

What a depressing read: especially from the Xara end of things. I am surprised that Charles and his developers question the need for headings and styles, as it was Charles’s Impression Publisher of 15 years ago that introduced them to me.

The omission of styles and headings in both Xtreme and Web Designer is an error in judgement. The long-established conventions of web page construction, based on good practice and the various rules of W3C and WAI, indicate that not using headings and styles is bad practice. Any web designer not using headings does not understand basic web principles: headings are not optional if your page has text.

Headings and styles give web pages visual uniformity, and are worth their weight in pandas for how easy it is to make web sites, Word files, PDF files, sales brochures, dissertations or anything of worthwhile complexity look consistent from one page to another.

The heading tags are pleasingly basic in what they do and, as Word, Dreamweaver and plenty of other packages prove, it is easy to modify how headings look. However, it is the behind-the-scenes structural function of headings that makes them imperative. They give any electronic document aspects of structure which is essential for both visually intact and visually impaired users.

In a book or newspaper, you navigate quickly around a page as your eyes spot the headings because they use larger text and different colours. Your eyes are detecting the structure. Headings in Word and in web pages have exactly the same effect and, rather wonderfully, visually impaired people using screen readers can also use them to skip sections and navigate.
In enlightened times one would hope that new software would try to make good practice an instinctive thing, so that the unconvinced find themselves doing good things without necessarily realising. In this sense XWD has taken a backwards step, which is a shame, and I hope that all aspects of web accessibility leapfrog to the top of the development list.

The links below explain things in details.
References:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups...nib003460.hcsp
http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/headings
http://www.staffordshiremedia.co.uk/accessibility
http://www.accessibility-professiona.../accessibility
http://www.nomensa.com/resources/art...correctly.html
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-fr...-toolbar.shtml

Coxover:” we are walking in circles.... And this irritates.”
Reply: absolutely, so stop arguing, admit you're wrong and fix it quick!!

[covoxer]

Reply: absolutely, so stop arguing,

I was never arguing - the only thing I was trying to do is to explain why it is this way. But if you don't like it, ok, that's fine, I'll never do this again. Though it will change nothing.

[ss-kalm]

@kingonlineuk

You seem to be confusing headings and styles ...... although I question the need for H1 etc. tags (please lets not rehash this again here), I do support the use of styles in the text editor. However, this is a text thing not a HTML thing. Charles never said that text styles will never be implemented.

[remi]

Keith, believe me, if Xara developers were able to code the necessary classes in order to add the styles concept, they could also add the rest (h1, h2, h3, ... tags) or convert some styles into the appropriate tags during export (as I've suggested in another posting, months ago).

Let's see if they cope with offering styled H1 headings in two years.

Remi