3 Sep 2009 10 am eastern

HTML5 For Smarties

The HTML5 specification runs on for over 900 pages, and much of what it covers, while vital to browser makers, is meaningless to people who create websites. If thousands of irrelevant details in the HTML5 spec have you crossing your eyes and crying for Mama, Michael™ Smith’s HTML 5: The Markup Language is just what the HTML5 doctor ordered: lean, clean, and content-author-focused. Until there’s a plain-language HTML5 Pocket Guide, Smith’s edited presentation of the spec will do. (It’s also available in a single page format.)

ShortURL: zeldman.com/?p=2561

Filed under: editorial, Education, HTML, HTML5, Web Design History, Web Standards

44 Responses to “HTML5 For Smarties”

  1. Tony said on 3 September 2009 at 10:53 am:

    Oh—my—GOD!

    JOY!!!!!!! =D

    It’s about time the W3C started publishing specs targeted at Web authors. After all, it’s only sensible in keeping with “leading the Web to its full potential”!

    Thanks so much for posting this!

  2. Jesse said on 3 September 2009 at 10:56 am:

    Would it be entirely inappropriate to do a little dance of joy?

    Thanks to all involved for this.

  3. Josiah Platt said on 3 September 2009 at 11:01 am:

    Sweet mother I’ve been dreaming of this.

    Thank you.

  4. Jared Stein said on 3 September 2009 at 11:03 am:

    Thanks for sharing this. Though I actually like reading specs, I’ve not had time and little motivation to dive into the HTML 5 pool. But now I think I have no excuse!

  5. Doug Aitken said on 3 September 2009 at 11:30 am:

    Joy unbound! Thankyou for linking to this & to the good Mr Smith for whipping this together.

  6. Billee D. said on 3 September 2009 at 11:33 am:

    Sweet! I had been reading the original draft for a while and with its verbosity I misconstrued some key concepts. Short and sweet is easier to digest. Thanks for sharing, Jeffrey.

  7. Morgan O'Neal said on 3 September 2009 at 12:02 pm:

    In the next draft are they going to change it to HTML5 vs HTML 5? Looks like they already made the change in the spec doc.

  8. Hablando de HTML 5 : Hilo : Domestika said on 3 September 2009 at 1:13 pm:

    [...] HTML 5 for Smarties Domestika Publicado hace cerca de una [...]

  9. The House of Bugs: HTML/CSS Question-o said on 3 September 2009 at 1:14 pm:

    [...] 11:40 AM reply · branch topic or poll · ignore · edited · edit history clean/abridged HTML 5 spec Jaime 02/04/2005 10:37 AM reply · branch topic or poll · ignore · parent [...]

  10. Jeffrey Zeldman said on 3 September 2009 at 1:25 pm:

    @Morgan:

    In response to an earlier post, the WHATWG has standardized on “HTML5,” and I’m told the W3C has done the same.

  11. Gage Batubara said on 3 September 2009 at 1:35 pm:

    Rocks! Thanks for sharing this.

  12. William King said on 3 September 2009 at 2:48 pm:

    Thank you, sir, for sharing this with us. It is sure to reduce headaches. :-P

  13. Shane said on 3 September 2009 at 3:38 pm:

    That information is very much appreciated. Thank you.

  14. Jorge M Machado said on 3 September 2009 at 4:47 pm:

    Excellent resource, Mr. Zeldman. Bookmarked.

  15. Ricky Irvine said on 3 September 2009 at 5:13 pm:

    Funny. They forgot to remove the space in “HTML 5″.

  16. Hablando de HTML 5 : Hilo : Domestika said on 3 September 2009 at 5:33 pm:

    [...] HTML 5 for Smarties Domestika Publicado hace 5 [...]

  17. Morgan O'Neal (09/09): In the next draft are th... — BackType said on 3 September 2009 at 6:17 pm:

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  18. Tweets that mention HTML5 For Smarties – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report -- Topsy.com said on 4 September 2009 at 12:30 am:

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  19. Xtence said on 4 September 2009 at 3:03 am:

    great man, thanks for sharing, this is what i was looking for !

    This one is bookmarked, now it’s time to make a cheat sheet.

  20. Banago said on 4 September 2009 at 7:55 am:

    Great copy – its a great thing that we can find everything in one place on HTML5.

  21. Oli Studholme said on 4 September 2009 at 11:40 am:

    Note that Mike’s “HTML 5: The Markup Language” guide is intentionally bare-bones, and drops the usage examples and background in the main spec that authors will find useful. It’s a great reference once you know what things mean, but until then another option is to use the “Hide UA text” in the top right box on the WhatWG spec. This removes a lot of the most eyes-glazing-over stuff for authors :)

    Alternatively you can read up on HTML5 at HTML5Doctor (or my humble HTML5 article series ;), then use Mike’s spec as reference.

    HTH

  22. Linky na vkend 256 | conBLOG pe Ji Bure said on 4 September 2009 at 1:38 pm:

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  23. Jeffrey Zeldman said on 5 September 2009 at 8:33 am:

    Thanks, Oli.

  24. HTML5 in the News - withoutnations - Mark Mitchell said on 6 September 2009 at 4:44 pm:

    [...] HTML5 for Smarties, Jeffrey Zeldman [...]

  25. Bookmarks for September 3rd through September 6th | OpenSource Release Feed said on 6 September 2009 at 5:59 pm:

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  26. Weekly Links #69 | GrantPalin.com said on 6 September 2009 at 9:03 pm:

    [...] HTML 5: The Markup Language The full spec for the update. Not exactly light reading, but good to know it is there. [via] [...]

  27. Updates for Week of 2009-09-06 | Flexknowlogy - Jared Stein on Education and Technology said on 7 September 2009 at 3:01 am:

    [...] Just what the HTML5 doctor ordered: a lean, clean, author-friendly version of the HTML5 spec. http://www.zeldman.com/?p=2561 [...]

  28. zcorpan said on 7 September 2009 at 7:11 am:

    There’s a static copy of the “hide UA text” view Oli mentioned, at

    http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec-author-view/

    (However, the section numbers will be different than from the full spec, since some sections are omitted entirely. So if you’re reviewing it and sending comments, don’t rely on section numbers.)

  29. Darcy said on 8 September 2009 at 7:12 am:

    This post is really great! I have gathered lots of ideas from this post about the HTML5.

    SEO Company

  30. HTML5: normativity & authoring guides — Edward O’Connor said on 9 September 2009 at 1:41 am:

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  31. Avvicinarsi ad HTML 5 | Edit - Il blog di HTML.it said on 10 September 2009 at 3:26 am:

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  32. Planet HTML5 said on 10 September 2009 at 6:58 am:

    [...] of the HTML5 Super Friends (Jeffrey Zeldman in HTML5 For Smarties and Eric Meyer in HTML5 And You) have recently called web authors’ attention to what might appear [...]

  33. Oli Studholme said on 11 September 2009 at 2:27 am:

    @zcorpan thanks for the link! You should have mentioned this one too though:

    Here’s another representation of the spec that might help: HTML5 Elements and Attributes, a table of contents giving quick access to the relevant parts of the spec. Anyone feel nostalgic?

    This is how specs are meant to look :D

  34. Keith said on 14 September 2009 at 12:42 am:

    The developer’s view style is obviously a good idea, but unfortunately none of the common browsers put alternate styles anywhere obvious (and the last I checked, Internet Explorer doesn’t support it at all). I think what would be keen would be to split the specification so that a bird’s-eye view containing the elements, attributes, and their descriptions come first and then have the implementation details after that.

  35. Leroy Lyne said on 16 September 2009 at 5:52 pm:

    Wow, I haven’t visited in while nice new design. I miss those old revolving blurry images. Will you be updating another version of your book that deals specifically with 5. I’m way too busy to slog through blog posts and websites. I hope so.

    —Middle Jamerican web geek.

  36. Golf Blog said on 19 September 2009 at 1:47 pm:

    This is a pretty good article about HTML 5. I agree with the guy above though– I can’t find a browser that supports it. What are yall using?

  37. Free Rein said on 24 September 2009 at 9:09 am:

    Very useful, thanks for sharing.

  38. not martha - links: technology said on 25 September 2009 at 12:27 pm:

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  39. Designing With Web Standards | Facebook said on 26 September 2009 at 12:24 pm:

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  40. Web Design Colchester said on 30 September 2009 at 5:05 am:

    Found an html 5 cheat-sheet, though can’t be sure if its accurate or not, anyone confirm if this is any good?

    http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/06/html-5-cheat-sheet-pdf/

  41. HTML5 For Smarties - Programming Blog said on 2 October 2009 at 3:17 am:

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  42. HTML5 For Smarties... (Jeffrey Zeldman Presents) » TechNews.AM said on 18 October 2009 at 7:56 am:

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  43. Jesse said on 28 October 2009 at 7:44 am:

    Just hope “IE” could fully support HTML5!!!!

  44. Web Design Cornwall said on 24 December 2009 at 4:47 am:

    great post, thanks for sharing, this is what i was looking for !

    WHich browsers are supporting this?
    I think it’s time to make a cheat sheet. Great post

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