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Acronyms and Abbreviations

I’ve been dipping into 30 days to a more accessible weblog. I like it, but here’s the nitpick: yesterday was Day 17: Defining acronyms. There’s no mention of the <abbr> tag (Abbreviation), some of the acronyms should be marked up as abbreviations.

More on phrase elements from the specs, and more on <abbr> at htmlhelp.com.

Note: A postscript to the article now mentions the <abbr> tag.

2 Comments

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  1. The distinction is fuzzy at best (the spec is not particularly helpful, many people disagree with HTMLHelp’s distinction, and some abbr/acronyms could simply go either way, like “VAT”). Also, Internet Explorer for Windows does not support ABBR at all, rendering it useful for the majority of web surfers. Use ACRONYM.

  2. Mark, thanks for posting!

    Yes, the definitions are (sometimes) fuzzy! I agree there is a strong argument for using acronym now because it works now, but thought your readers deserved to know about another alternative. It was the Win (for Windows) that set me thinking, it’s a good example of an abbrievation, and not so good example of an acronym ;-)