Should I specify anchors with an anchor element?

Question

In the past I've seen examples of anchors being specified using anchor elements, and id or name attributes (with id taking precedence).

However, is there any particular reason why I should use an anchor element over any other element, in terms of accessibility/cross-browser support?

For example I could a URL http://domain.com/page.htm#faq with the following markup:

<a id="faq"></a>
<h1>Frequently Asked Questions</h1>

Which could be simplified to:

<h1 id="faq">Frequently Asked Questions</h1>

Is there any harm in using this second markup? Is there a particular reason why developers would prefer empty anchors over attaching the id to a more relevant element?

I've _never_ used the first method. I don't see anything wrong with the second, I use it all the time. Probably remnants of the past. — Christian, Nov 15 '12 at 12:00
@Christian - you are too young to remember ;) Indeed, remnants of the past. — Oded, Nov 15 '12 at 12:02

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 15 '12 at 12:00

3

is there any particular reason why I should use an anchor element over any other element, in terms of accessibility/cross-browser support?

No, not any more.

Historically (pre HTML 4), named anchors were the only way to have in page anchors.

Is there any harm in using this second markup?

That's the recommended way - that's how you should do it.

Is there a particular reason why developers would prefer empty anchors over attaching the id to a more relevant element?

Only lack of learning and adapting to change ;)

answered Nov 15 '12 at 12:00

Oded

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+1 Thanks Oded, this has give me the reassurance to continue using the 2nd method without worrying that I'm blocking out x% of users! – Curtis Nov 15 '12 at 12:10
@Curt - Only those using Mozilla 3, IE 3.02 and such ;) – Oded Nov 15 '12 at 12:11
Ha, well I'm more than happy to block them out! – Curtis Nov 15 '12 at 12:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 12:04

It's ok to write your code. There are two points of using first code:

Historical reasons.

HtmlHelpers in any html-drive, like Razor. For example, it looks fine for me to use something like this:

public static MvcHtmlString Anchor<TModel>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, string anchorId)
{
    var tag = new TagBuilder("a");
    tag.Attributes.Add("id", anchorId);
    return MvcHtmlString.Create(tag.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal));
}

In my MVC project.

Should I specify anchors with an anchor element?

2 Answers2