Remember that some of these rules, such as those involving the length of titles, are matters of effective visual design rather than verbal style.

Title tags

1. The material between title tags appears at the top of the browser window above the contents of the document. 2. The material between title tags has to remain fairly brief.

Too long: <title>"'O Christian George King sar berry sorry!' says that Sambo vagabond" — illustration by E. G. Dalziel for "The Island of Silver Store," Chapter 1 in "The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" in "Christmas Stories" (1857)</title>

Correct: <title>"O Christian George King sar berry sorry!" — illustration by E. G. Dalziel for Dickens's "Christmas Stories" (1857)</title>

2. One cannot use most tags, such as <span class ="book" > </span>> between title tags. Instead, use quotation marks.

Header for style1.css documents

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<title>The Victorian Web House Style and formatting rules and suggestions: Headers and footers</title>
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<h2>The Victorian Web House Style and formatting rules and suggestions: Headers and footers<
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What appears beneath the Victorian Web icon? bc [bread crumb] links

All HTML text documents in the Victorian Web have a line of links in a small font immediately below the Victorian Web icon. These links generally parallel the document's footer links — those icons square blue icons with yellow lettering — found at the bottom of the page. These bc (or bread crumb) links are meant, like the trail of breadcrumbs in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel,” to permit readers to either (1) to trace their way all the way back to the site's homepage or (2) to some stop at a category along the way. The following html exemplifies a typical line of bc links for an HTML document presenting an illustration by the artist Harry Furniss:

<p class="bc">
[<a href="../../../index.html"><Victorian Web Home</a>—>
<a href="../../index.html"><Visual Arts</a> —>
<a href="../index.html"><Illustration</a> —>
<a href="index.html">Harry Furniss</a>—>
<a href="59.html"><Next</a>

Note that as one moves from left to right in the line of links, one moves from the most general category (or sitemap) to more specific ones. Note, too, that the last bc link takes the reader to the next document in a sequence, so any document that completes a sequence omits the next link and ends in the following manner:

<a href="index.html">Harry Furniss</a>]

Exceptions or variations: if one wishes to add a link to a category that does not fit in the usual sequence — say, one for Charles Dickens, the author of the work illustrated by Harry Furniss — place it immediately following the first line [Victorian Web Home —].

Note that bc links to individual authors are especially valuable when no icon exists for them (and therefore no links to that author's, artist's, or historical figure's homepage can appear at the bottom of the document.)

Note 2: In the few cases when too long a chain of bc links would occupy more than a single line, omit the next category after Victorian Web Home —

Note 3. In the bc line names of authors, artists, historical figures, and other categories should be as simple and brief as clarity permits. For example, use “R. D. Blackmore” not “Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825-1900)” and “J.M.W. Turner” not “Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (1775-1851).”

Footers

Although style2.css documents, which have a two-column format, often have substantial text and even images in the footer, ones formated with style1.css contain only linked icons, date last modified, some Google-related code. The footer for a complex document in the folder for Pickwick Papers, which is inside the Dickens folder, which is inside the authors folder:


<hr>
<a href ="../../../index.html"><img src="../../../icons2/victorian2.gif" alt="Victorian Web Overview"/></a>
<a href ="../../index.html"><img src="../../../icons2/victorian2.gif" alt="Victorian Web Overview"/></a>
<a href ="../index.html"><img src="../../../icons2/authors/dickens2.jpg" alt="Charles Dickens"/></a>
<a href ="index.html"><img src="../../../icons2/works/pickwick2.jpg" alt="Pickwick Papers"></a>

<p class="date">Last modified 24 October 2002</p>
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Last modified 29 June 2014