Advanced XHTML Editor

Custom tags allow business users to attach semantic meaning to elements of content during the authoring process. Custom tags can subsequently be used for indexing data, or for optimizing search results in enterprise-level search engines. They can also serve as placeholders for dynamic content. In the example below, a custom tag acts as a placeholder for the latest stock price:

The current stock price is $<stock exchange="NASDAQ">INTL</stock>.

At run time this gives the result:

The current stock price is $31.49.

Maintains the important distinction between data and layout tables, which are processed differently by assistive technologies such as screen readers.

Data tables can only understood in relation to cell and column headers. If the association between the table cells and the headers is not made clear, non-visual browsers will read the data in linear fashion. The result will be meaningless. By contrast, XStandard makes it easy to create tables that use <th> to identify the column and row headers that cell contents refer to. XStandard also requires authors to submit summaries for data tables, allowing non-visual browsers to describe tables fully.

XStandard makes it easy to ensure that informative images are used in a semantically meaningful way.

XStandard ensures that images are used correctly by prompting authors to identify images as decorative or informative, when images are uploaded through the editor or referenced in a remote library.

Decorative images are used for visual effect or as design elements (spacers or graphical bullets). Since they are not used to convey meaningful information, XStandard makes decorative images invisible to non-visual browsers by giving them an empty alt text, and by not requiring a title or longdesc.

By contrast, informative images such as photographs, diagrams and navigational aids do convey important meaning. XStandard therefore requires alt text for informative images and encourages users to also contribute both a title and longdesc. In addition, XStandard reinforces the distinction between alt text and title by asking for both, (title is properly used for tool tips, not alt)

The accessibility button on XStandard's toolbar opens the Screen Reader Preview that helps authors further optimize content for accessibility.

Code generated by XStandard is guaranteed to be accessibility-ready, but XStandard's Screen Reader Preview offers authors an additional opportunity to optimize content for accessibility. It does this by displaying content managed through XStandard as it is "read" by screen readers. This means content is laid out in linear fashion, together with information that the author would normally not see (alt text, table summaries, tool tips, etc.). Previewing content in this fashion prompts authors to make necessary changes prior to publishing.

For example, authors might forget to identify which cells in a data table act as row or column headers. Without this information, screen readers have no references for data in the table. Alternatively, captions and summaries submitted for tables might need to be modified, or alt texts edited to be more meaningful. XStandard also alerts authors to inappropriate text used for hyperlinks. The expression "Click here" for example, is meaningless when processed by a screen reader, and XStandard is easily customized to warn against the use of other expressions of a similar type.

The Screen Reader Preview also issues alert messages when code entered manually through View Source contains semantically questionable markup. For example it discourages the use of the <b> tag, which has visual significance for sighted readers but carries no semantic significance for users of assistive technologies such as screen readers. In this case users would be encouraged to use <strong> which does have semantic meaning for screen readers. Other alert messages include warnings that alt text or table summaries are missing. This information must be submitted before content can be saved.