When shoud'nt I be using a div?

Question

The basic layout of my site has been designed using Divs and
CSS for the positioning of Banners, Top Menus, Left Menus, Content
Area, and footer area. I have no actual content in the site apart
from a <ul> tab menu and a logo banner.
My question is when shoudnt I be using a Div? For example, in
my Div called 'banner' I have placed a second div called
'bannerimage' which will hold the logo gif. This div is floated
left inside the 'banner' div. Could I have done this using say
<h1>?
I have begun reading a book called HTML Mastery by Paul Haine
which mentions Divitis, or overuse of divs. I understand that
inside the "content" div I will have to use html markup such as
<p> <h3> or whatever, but what about the rest of the
structure of the site? Am I ok to keep the divs I have and mark
them up correctly?
www.tomkilbourn.com

Answer 1

~Billy~ wrote:
> The basic layout of my site has been designed using Divs
and CSS for the
> positioning of Banners, Top Menus, Left Menus, Content
Area, and footer area. I
> have no actual content in the site apart from a
tab menu and a logo
> banner.
>
> My question is when shoudnt I be using a Div? For
example, in my Div called
> 'banner' I have placed a second div called 'bannerimage'
which will hold the
> logo gif. This div is floated left inside the 'banner'
div. Could I have done
> this using say <h1>?
First off don't use the word 'banner' for your container or
images as
Nortons security will likely block it.
It's a grey area go be honest as to whether you use an h1 tag
or not. IF
you're as pure as the driven snow then no but many
develpopers take
advantage of the h1 at the top of the page to catch the
spider. The img
alt would be inside an h1 so emphasis would be
greater........but it's
not an opinion shared by others.
Bottom line is you need to make up your own mind and
eventually go your
own way because everyone has different ideas.
You only obviously need to float left if you want something
else to the
right of the flaoted container, be that container an h1 or a
<div>
If you don't use the h1 then you dont really need to house
the image in
another <div>, just insert it directly into the
'banner' <div>
> I have begun reading a book called HTML Mastery by Paul
Haine which mentions
> Divitis, or overuse of divs.
Yeah its easy to get carried away. So just ask yourself do I
really need
another <div> or not. Sometimes you do and other you
don't. As long as
you are aware of it you will eventually start to use extra
containers
only when its necesssary or you can't be asked to unpick your
code to
streamline it.
I understand that inside the "content" div I will
> have to use html markup such as <p> <h3> or
whatever, but what about the rest
> of the structure of the site? Am I ok to keep the divs I
have and mark them up
> correctly?
Sure its ok to keep the <divs> just think before you go
using then too
liberally.