After reading more about XHTML Syntax Rules at w3schools.com I discovered that:

"The id attribute replaces the name attribute"

<img src="picture.gif" name="picture1" /> (old-html)
<img src="picture.gif" id="picture1" /> (new-xhtml)

I'm not sure what a use for the name is, I've never used it in my work to date as I'm not yet programmer-savvy.

What I really want to know is I am modelling my homepage on the layout template from Cross-Browser.com (see Kevin Yanks css article on multi-column layout) at:

http://cross-browser.com/x/examples/layout2.html

this (template) uses id's, ie ..

<div id="centerColumn">
<div id="centerColumnContent">

..which seem to work the same as css classes. Back in the css sheet a hash (#) is used instead of a period (.) for the id/class. Are the id and class one and the same? in other words can I officially put in my css page:

#specialcolumn {
width: 760px;
background-color: #000000;
}

and then put in my xhtml page:

<div id="specialcolumn">content</div>

rather than:

.specialcolumn {
width: 760px;
background-color: #000000;
}

<div class="specialcolumn">content</div>


I've done it to a number of web page elements and the ID method seems to work just as if 'class' is used.

The Cross-Browser template works with a Javascript to make columns line up in the multicolumn layout, hence I think the use of the 'ID' rather than class for the divs so they're recognised. But it's raised this question for me as to whether this is an enhancement of XHTML because I'm migrating (migraining).