help using the <address> tag properly

[sonic921]

Hi All, I need an accessible way of displaying contact details...

I have two options and I'm open for any other suggestions. My page needs to validate XHTML 1.0 strict

Option 1

<dl>
  <dt><address>San Marco Tile Centre – Bryanston</address></dt>
  <dd><address>Unit 1, Bryanston Blvd, 76 William Nicol Drv, Bryanston</address></dd>
  <dd><address>Tel: Fax: Facsimile: E-mail:</address></dd>
</dl>

Option2

<address>
San Marco Tile Centre – Bryanston<br />
Unit 1, Bryanston Blvd, 76 William Nicol Drv, Bryanston<br />
Tel: Fax: Facsimile: E-mail:
</address>

Thanx in advance

[gnarly]

<address> is for marking up the contact details of the author of the document - not just any old address: http://www.autisticcuckoo.net/archiv...-element-types

Personally, I think I'd use something based around a <dl>:

<dl>
   <dt>Address</dt>
   <dd>Postal address here</dd>
   <dt>E-mail</dt>
   <dd>blah@blah</dd>
   (etc...)
</dl>

I'd also mark it up to follow the hCard format (http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard). See http://thinkdrastic.net/contact/ for an example.

[sonic921]

Thanx qnarly, that cleared it up for me, I too use the microformats hcard format, but the address tag confused me a bit...

[AutisticCuckoo]

It's sort of a misnomer, and I think most developers get it wrong. It should have been named <contactinfo> or something.

I normally use <address> for the page footer when it contains contact information. I also use it, albeit not 100% according to the spec, for generic contact information on 'Contact Us' pages.

According to the spec, <address> can also mark up contact information for a part of a document.