CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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mc9
mc9

Reputation: 6351

Can HTML5 <aside> be displayed in the bottom of the document?

I am displaying articles on my document, and displaying links to other articles at the bottom.

HTML looks something like this:

<article>...</article>
<article>...</article>
...
<article>...</article>

<aside>
 Other recent articles
 <div> ... </div>
</aside>

I think the links to other articles should be , because it is defined in MDN as:

a section of the page with content connected tangentially to the rest, which could be considered separate from that content.

But the name <aside> seems to imply that the element should be either on left or right side. Can it be in the bottom?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 952

Answers (3)

Chris Peters
Chris Peters

Reputation: 18090

With HTML, you should always think of your usage of tags as structural, not presentational.

So don't think of <aside>'s name as a physical description. Think of it in terms of its purpose in structuring content: to associate tangentially related content to the main content. That has nothing to do with where it's placed on the physical page design.

If you're designing your page with media queries, for example, I bet your mobile view isn't going to put an <aside> on either side of the screen because there is not enough room. You'll likely position <aside> content after the main content. But when you scale up to a desktop-sized screen, you have plenty of room to put that content on the left or right side (if you want, but you're not forced to!).

I also think back on Shakespeare's usages of asides: the characters would pause from the main play to talk directly to the audience about what they were thinking or what was going on. (Kevin Spacey's character does it a lot in House of Cards too.)

Update: I also looked up the definition of the word "aside":

a remark that is not directly related to the main topic of discussion.

"the recipe book has little asides about the importance of home and family"

Upvotes: 1

Zack Tanner
Zack Tanner

Reputation: 2590

I think you can interpret aside in different ways. As in, if the content wasn't there, the main point of the page could still be understood. Thus, aside should hold anything tangentially related to the content.

Ask yourself, if you remove the content within aside, will the meaning of the page stay the same?

Upvotes: 1

BoltClock
BoltClock

Reputation: 723498

The term "aside" is used in a similar vein to how one might say "on a side note" (in fact, that is what the <aside> element is designed for). It doesn't necessarily imply that the content must be laid out on the left or right side — that is a layout concern which has little to do with content semantics. If your layout calls for aside content to be placed at the bottom, you are free to style it accordingly.

As an aside (heh), if it is a set of navigation links, you may want to mark it up as a <nav> instead, but that is up to you.

Upvotes: 1

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