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HTML

Posted by Suli S
Suli S
1,475 Points

Headlines or Headings?

Hi.

I noticed that here in treehouse videos they use the term 'Headlines' for html elments such as h1, h2, etc. Whereas in other sites they use 'Headings'.

What's more I had a discussion with a web designer and we spoke about this and I said Headlines and he was shocked and said what's headlines? And after a minute he realized and said: Do you mean Headings?

So my question is that why treehouse does teach us the good standards out there?

3 Answers

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Suli S -

I'm guessing you are referring to the Markup video in the HTML Deep Dive course.

Here's a quote from the transcript:

(03:12) For the header, up at the top of this text we want to add our first level headline tags.

As you can see from quote, Nick Pettit is referring to the top line of the document as a header and referring to the HTML element <h1> as a level 1 headline. The term header is this context is merely being used a description to the location in the document and has nothing to do with the actual markup used.

Nick Pettit
Nick Pettit
Treehouse Teacher
Nick Pettit
Nick Pettit
Treehouse Teacher

Thanks for clarifying, James Barnett! That is indeed the case.

These days the term headline isn't as popular as it once was, but I still use it because the alternative is to call it a "heading" as it's referred to in the W3C documentation. There's already a header element and a head element, so the term isn't doing us any favors, especially for beginners.

Jon Morhous
PLUS
Jon Morhous
Courses Plus Student 4,740 Points
Jon Morhous
Jon Morhous
Courses Plus Student 4,740 Points

I can see where this post is "heading", haha. Sorry, just a little html humor...I might be out of my "element" here, but why do we call it a "hash-tag" or "pound sign" when its technically called an "octothorp"? If you like it called a "heading", call it that. I do, but I also know what it is when someone else calls it a "headline".

Richard Crawford-Wilson
Richard Crawford-Wilson
6,094 Points

You sir, win the internet

Richard Crawford-Wilson
Richard Crawford-Wilson
6,094 Points
Richard Crawford-Wilson
Richard Crawford-Wilson
6,094 Points

This is just Tomayto Tomahto... They're synonyms: http://thesaurus.com/browse/headline?s=t It's a matter of preference really, and not all that big of a deal. Often heading tags are used to create visual "headlines". Just like how someone might call <strong> bold.

Suli S
Suli S
1,475 Points

You are right, they are synonyms but when it comes to HTML web design terminology Heading is most popular even in W3C so what is the reason treehouse doesn't use it?

Richard Crawford-Wilson
Richard Crawford-Wilson
6,094 Points

In the grand scheme of life, it really isn't a big deal. Call it what you will.

Suli S
Suli S
1,475 Points

Why I put myself in different words than others when it is important to speak familiar language to a team of designers, for example?

Richard Crawford-Wilson
Richard Crawford-Wilson
6,094 Points

I don't think they'll care. All they care about is the ability to do your job and do it well. If everything hinged in pronunciation or language idioms, nobody could work together ....

Suli S
Suli S
1,475 Points

OK but the point that I want to address is: As a professional training company (treehouse) they should care about every detail even when they pick such vocabulary. If it is someone who teach us in a blog I'll accept it but it comes from treehouse I won't.

Richard Crawford-Wilson
Richard Crawford-Wilson
6,094 Points

Right. Have fun with that

Jonathan Rawlins
Jonathan Rawlins
13,998 Points

I call them "Headings" too, but I know a fair few american designers that call them "Headlines" it's not a big deal and if you work with someone that has the experience then you wont have a problem because they will understand each use case. Each to their own and all that.

Suli S I don't think you can slander Treehouse for how they use their words, take it as them teaching you there are different way's of saying these things. Alternatively, read above where they explain what they actually meant and in the context they meant it. At least they are proactive in explaining either a mistake or a different way.