One easy way to start coding semantically is to use lists tags. For me personally, lists tend to organize my HTML code and make content more readable in general. Lets look at three basic tags that everyone can use, starting with the most common.

The Unordered List

This is probably the tag that we rely most often on. Many designers use it to create link menus as well as the occasional content list. In our example we are going to organize some audio tracks that I got from Apple’s iTunes Store.

<h4>My iTunes Music</h4>
<ul>
  <li>Man In the Box - Alice In Chains</li>
  <li>Cool - Gwen Stefani</li>
  <li>Killing Me Softly with His Song - Fugees</li>
  <li>Not Gonna Get Us - t.A.T.u.</li>
  <li>Born Under a Bad Sign - Jimmy Hendrix</li>
</ul>

The above code will render with a bullet for each item, and automatically indent. It should look something like this:

My iTunes Music

  • Man In the Box – Alice In Chains
  • Cool – Gwen Stefani
  • Killing Me Softly with His Song – Fugees
  • Not Gonna Get Us – t.A.T.u.
  • Born Under a Bad Sign – Jimmy Hendrix

But how about if I wanted to organize each of my iTunes tracks? Perhaps I had many of them and I wanted to have them all numbered. In this case, the standard unordered list tag is not what I really need.

The Ordered List

Enter the ordered list tag which can automatically number all my items for me.

<h4>My iTunes Music</h4>
<ol>
  <li>Man In the Box - Alice In Chains</li>
  <li>Cool - Gwen Stefani</li>
  <li>Killing Me Softly with His Song - Fugees</li>
  <li>Not Gonna Get Us - t.A.T.u.</li>
  <li>Born Under a Bad Sign - Jimmy Hendrix</li>
</ol>

Using CSS, I can also style the ordered list using the list-style-type property so that the default list style can be:

  • decimal: 1, 2, 3,…
  • upper-alpha: A, B, C,…
  • lower-alpha: a, b, c,…
  • upper-roman: I, II, III,…
  • lower-roman: i, ii, iii,…
  • none:

The standard decimal default, of the ordered list for my iTunes tracks automatically numbers each of the items for me, so that I do not have to worry about actually adding numbers between the li tags.

My iTunes Music

  1. Man In the Box – Alice In Chains
  2. Cool – Gwen Stefani
  3. Killing Me Softly with His Song – Fugees
  4. Not Gonna Get Us – t.A.T.u.
  5. Born Under a Bad Sign – Jimmy Hendrix

However, after ordering my iTunes tracks, I decide that I would rather organize my tunes according to artist, since my collection has grown and now includes multiple tracks from the same artist.

The Definition List

In this case, I am going to change my list and make things even more structured.

<h4>My iTunes Music by Artist</h4>
<dl>
  <dt>Alice In Chains</dt>
    <dd>Main In the Box</dd>
    <dd>Would? (Unplugged)</dd>
  <dt>Gwen Stefani</dt>
    <dd>Cool</dd>
  <dt>Fugees</dt>
    <dd>Killing Me Softly with His Song</dd>
  <dt>t.A.T.u.</dt>
    <dd>Not Gonna Get Us</dd>
  <dt>Jimmy Hendrix</dt>
    <dd>Born Under a Bad Sign</dd>
</dl>

By using the multiple dd tags, for the same dt tag, I have an easy way of organizing my songs by artist.

My iTunes Music by Artist

Alice In Chains
Main In the Box
Would? (Unplugged)
Gwen Stefani
Cool
Fugees
Killing Me Softly with His Song
t.A.T.u.
Not Gonna Get Us
Jimmy Hendrix
Born Under a Bad Sign

By using common list tags like the Unordered List, Ordered List, and Definition List you can quickly add structure to your HTML and at the same time use CSS more effectively to quickly add design elements to your page.