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HTML How to Make a Website HTML First Create the Content Containers

Ben Norman
Ben Norman
1,192 Points
Posted by Ben Norman
Ben Norman
1,192 Points

what does the main element do? I thought that would be used where you used the section. is there a standard

I thought the main element was meant to be used where you have used the section element. Should the section element be replaced by the main element?

3 Answers

Agapito Cruz
Agapito Cruz
21,486 Points
Agapito Cruz
Agapito Cruz
21,486 Points

From my reading of the spec, there is no requirement to use main, so people can use section or divs if they want. I use it because I think it makes things more meaningful, but for some it is a preference thing. BTW, Here is more recent W3C page on it : http://www.w3.org/TR/html-main-element/. The one I posted before is a couple of years out of date.

-Agapito

Agapito Cruz
Agapito Cruz
21,486 Points
Agapito Cruz
Agapito Cruz
21,486 Points

Hello Ben,

According to the W3C, the main tag is supposed to wrap the main content of the page. As such, they state that there should only be one main element, while a page can have multiple sections. Also,it should never be a child element of other sectioning elements, such as article, aside, footer, header or nav.

Here's the link http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-html-main-element-20121217/.

Hope this helps.

-Agapito

Ben Norman
Ben Norman
1,192 Points
Ben Norman
Ben Norman
1,192 Points

Yeah, your confirming my suspicions. I was wondering why the How to make a website track / HTML First Stage uses the section instead of main and whether that was actually correct. If main is as you say, the top level element for content like the header and footer then shouldn't main replace section in that tutorial?