WEB STANDARDS CREATIVITY

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Summary
This chapter is by no means an exhaustive list of the ways
in which the body element’s class attribute is used on the
New York Magazine site; I’d love to provide you with such
a list, but I don’t think I could force you to sit through a
Tolstoy-length chapter on the body element. Rather, I
hope that the information in this chapter sparks some
ideas on how this multiple class value technique can be a
boon to you, and how an intelligent application of it can
decrease your site’s template count, reduce markup clutter,
and give you ample hooks for both JavaScript and
CSS. On the New York Magazine site, we’ve used additional
classes to dynamically swap out section-specific
logos and automatically highlight the current navigation
tab. Additional applications for this are entirely up to you.
Web standards are about improved control over your
design, not maintaining bulky code. Embrace your body,
and your sites will be easier to maintain, update, and
improve. And, of course, your users will love that.