By Marko Dugonjić CHAPTER 9We all know how to markup a basic HTML document. Yet, there’s still
so much content on the Web which is not properly structured. For exam-
ple, the abbreviation element, the non-breaking space, the thin space, the
hair space, all of which are still heavily underused. Proper spacing before
and after punctuation in initials, initialisms and truncations, even ratio or
date and time expressions, can tremendously improve the texture, supply-
ing just the right amount of pause for uninterrupted reading. E.R.Burroughs,
18.04.2013, e.g. and 2:3, as well as E. R. Burroughs, 18. 04. 2013, e. g. and 2 : 3 are
equally wrong. Instead, we should use the thin space and the hair space
between characters. For example:
E. R. Burroughs
24. 2. 2013.
24. 1. 2013.
e. g.
2 : 3
The situation with quotations (“...” instead of "..." and ‘...’ instead of
'...') and line pauses (dashes) is a little better now — at least in Web design
publications — but we rarely see appropriately applied ranges, for instance
Zagreb–Split or 9AM–5PM (both spaced with an en dash), on a mainstream
website.
Provide content creators (including yours truly) with tools to help
improve their texts by encouraging the proper use of a writing style. There
A couple of examples of properly set spaces.