BJ: The web server uses a number of HTML tags to represent notes rich text “font properties”. (The “font properties” are what you specify with the notes editor using the “font” tab of the text info box, and include font face, size, style and color.)

When translating the font properties to HTML, the web server uses a combination of the tags:

  • <tt> - teletype / mono space font
  • <b> - bold
  • <i> - italic
  • <u> - underline
  • <s> - strikethru
  • <font> - for size, color, and face (other than default monospace)
  • <sup> - superscript
  • <sub> - subscript

Of these <sup> and <sub> are considered “text structure” tags by HTML 4.01 and are still proper usage.

The tags <font>, <u>, and <s> are deprecated, and the remaining are “frowned upon”.

So, what are the alternatives for the web server to use and how do we go about doing it in a way that does not adversely affect existing applications?

[Several examples, considerations and possibilities are listed.]

I am leaning toward the direct use of a style attribute with an inner span tag with class=domino_run (as in paragraph (2) above) along with an option for selectively disabling certain conversion (as in (5)) and an option for using absolute point size (6).

I invite comments, questions, suggestions, alternate proposals…

[Follow the link so you can make those comments on the IBM Domino forum. BJ]

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