Coding punctuation

[rabbitsfeat]

I'm using Dreamweaver CS3 and would like to know which is better to use when coding punctuation, directly in the xhtml.

Say I want an em dash for instance. Dreamweaver allows me 2 ways to code this. These are:

—

or

& # 8 2 1 2 ; (it kept showing the actual symbol so I've put a space between each part... it should all be bunched together.)

Which is better to use?

The same goes for curly quotes; 2 ways to code it.

I'd like to know if there's any standard regarding this, or if not which method people generally use.

Thanks for any help given.

[AutisticCuckoo]

I'd say the best way is to write the punctuation literally (as '—') using a character encoding that allows this (e.g., UTF-8).

Whether you use numeric character references (NCRs) like — or entity references like — is mostly a matter of taste. Unless you're using an XHTML doctype declaration, in which case you definitely shouldn't use entity references. (They're not guaranteed to work in XHTML, since the entities are defined in the DTDs, which most XML parsers don't read.)

[Chroniclemaster1]

I generally avoid curly quotes in my webpages. They're pretty, but using straight quotes allow you to just type without inserting lots of extra references. I have some pages that are research based and it's easy for the quotation marks to pile up quickly.

[rabbitsfeat]

Unless you're using an XHTML doctype declaration, in which case you definitely shouldn't use entity references.

Sorry but it's probably just me but I don't quite understand the above sentence.

I'm using xhtml transitional 1.0 and charset=utf-8.

So with this should I just put quotes and emdashes in literally or use the character references.

I generally avoid curly quotes in my webpages.

I've read in web typography books and resources on the web that curly quotes should be used and not inch marks ".

I'd like to hear what other peoples take on this is and which you use.

[AutisticCuckoo]

Sorry but it's probably just me but I don't quite understand the above sentence.

I'm using xhtml transitional 1.0 and charset=utf-8.

So with this should I just put quotes and emdashes in literally or use the character references.

If you're using UTF-8, the best and easiest way is to use literal quote and dash characters if your editor allows a method for inputting them. If not, you should use numeric character references (NCR) like —, not character entity references like —, because the latter are not guaranteed to work with XHTML. (Some entity references can also cause problems in older browsers.)

If you use pretend-XHTML (served as text/html) I strongly recommend decimal NCRs (e.g., —) instead of hexadecimal (e.g., —), since some older HTML-only browsers don't recognise hexadecimal NCRs.