Question

I know that it’s incorrect to style a <section> tag but how about the <header> and <footer> tags. If using these tags provides a more semantic markup then they should be used, however, if they can’t be styled then a <div> would still need to be inserted inside the tag to wrap the content and style it.

I know that <header> can be styled but I’m not sure if it’s correct to do so.

So the question is: Should html5 tags be styled or should a <div> be placed inside to take care of the styling?

Answer 1

Nothing in the spec says you can’t or shouldn’t style HTML5 elements such as <section> or <article>. It only says that you shouldn’t place a semantic HTML5 element somewhere ‘for the sake of‘ styling something. Use a <div> instead.

So if you have a semantic reason to add the <section> or <article> somewhere, then by all means add it AND also feel free to style it as well. But if you have to wrap a section of your mark-up for styling purposes (eg. to add a border, or float left etc.), but that section does not have any semantic meaning in your mark-up, then use a <div>.

For instance:

<div class="mainBox">
    <nav class="breadcrumbs">
        <ol>
            <li>...list of links (snip)....</li>
        </ol>
    </nav>

    <section>
        <h1>Latest Tweets From Twitter</h1>

        <article>
            //... a Tweet (snip)... //
        </article>

        <article>
            //... a Tweet (snip)... //
        </article>

        //... lots more Twitter posts (snip)... //

    </section>

</div>

The <section> element is the main part of your page (ie. your list of tweets) and also has a heading at the start which is required. But it’s wrapped in a div.mainBox element because maybe you want to wrap a border around the both the breadcrumbs and section parts, ie. it’s purely for styling. But there’s nothing to stop you styling the <section> and <article> elements also.