Posted by Jonathan N. Little on 02/06/06 23:06

Toby Inkster wrote:
> John Salerno wrote:
>
>
>>Is it recommended to use <abbr> more than once for the same abbreviation
>>on a page? Or should it just be used on the first occurrence?
>
>
> Ideally (and I'm not saying that I do this myself) you'd expand the
> abbreviation on its first usage, but on further usages just indicate that
> it *is* an abbreviation, thus giving screen-readers a better chance at
> spelling out initialisms, rather than trying to pronounce them as a word.
> (I have no idea which readers are smart enough to take the hint though!)
>
> Example:
> first occurance: <abbr title="United Kingdom">UK</abbr>
> later occurance: <abbr class="already-expanded">UK</abbr>
>
> With:
> <style type="text/css">
> ABBR {
> border-bottom: 1px dotted;
> cursor: help;
> }
> ABBR.already-expanded {
> border-bottom: 1px dotted silver;
> cursor: inherit;
> }
> </style>
>
> I'm sure that Jukka will suggest simply putting the abbreviation in
> parentheses after its first use. This has its merits, particularly for
> abbreviations that are both important to your message and unlikely to be
> already known by the reader. The reader will see the expansion more
> easily. Perhaps in such a case, it should be written as:
>
> first occurance: <dfn>UK</dfn> (United Kingdom)
> later occurance: <abbr class="already-expanded">UK</abbr>
>
> You might even want to mix both the styles I've mentioned, using the first
> for abbreviations that the user might be reasonably expected to already
> know, or where the expension of the abbreviation is unimportant; and the
> second style for abbreviations that require more explanation.
>
> Other people may have better ideas.
>

Maybe:

ABBR { border-bottom: 1px dotted silver; }
ABBR[title] { cursor: help; }

And use a title attribute on the first occurrence only and then that one
gets the help cursor and the balloon reference.

first occurrence: <abbr title="United Kingdom">UK</abbr>
.... later occurrence: <abbr>UK</abbr>

At the lease it saves some keystrokes...

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

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