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HTML

Posted by Haley Young
Haley Young
14,315 Points

Should we be using <section> instead of <div>?

I've always thought that section is the more semantic choice in many cases, but Nick seems to be using a lot of divs here. Is this more of a preference thing or is there a clear better option?

Haley Young
Haley Young
14,315 Points

This is in regards to this video: https://teamtreehouse.com/library/accessibility/websites/html-part-2

I thought I posted it under the video thread but it appears not; my apologies.

3 Answers

Ethan Rivas
Ethan Rivas
9,979 Points

It's All About Semantics:

  • The SECTION element is defined as a semantic section of a web page or site that isn't another more specific type (like article or aside).

  • The DIV element is used for parts of the page that you want to divide up, but for purposes other than semantics.

You can read more about this here: http://webdesign.about.com/od/html5tags/fl/div-vs-section.htm

Tracy Excell
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Tracy Excell
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 15,333 Points
Tracy Excell
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Tracy Excell
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 15,333 Points

Hi, I found this, which may help you.

The <div> tag defines a division or a section in an HTML document. The <div> tag is used to group block-elements to format them with CSS.

In the HTML5 standard, the <section> element is defined as a block of related elements. The <div> element is defined as a block of children elements.Aug 4, 2011 html5 - What is the difference between <section> and <div>? - Stack ...

stackoverflow.com/questions/6939864/what-is-the-difference-between-section-and-div

Stephanie Marek
Stephanie Marek
2,831 Points
Stephanie Marek
Stephanie Marek
2,831 Points

These replies were helpful. I don't think I fully grasped the functionality of semantic markups from this section, so more reading on their importance helped me to understand the difference between <section> and <div>.

"By using HTML tags that have meaning, you create pages that impart more information than by just surrounding everything with <div> tags." -https://www.lifewire.com/why-use-semantic-html-3468271