Headings should contain text*

Error Report

Headings should contain text.

What Is A Heading?

A heading is a title for a section of text that, when correctly formatted, can be used to create electronically generated outlines (via tools like HTML5 Outliner Links to an external site. and HeadingsMap Links to an external site.) and be used to more easily navigate the webpage (via keyboard commands in a text-to-speech or screen reader Links to an external site. program commonly used by visually impaired persons). For more on correctly formatting headings, see Avoid using styles for document structure.

Why Is This Important?

If a heading has no text, there are three problems that can arise. All of these problems stem from the fact that you cannot see the empty heading. If the heading has text you may be able to better determine if the heading belongs in the webpage or should be deleted.

Cause Of Error

To get this error, you usually have created a heading via the Paragraph drop menu but either:

  • Forgot to add text.
  • Deleted the text, but not the line.
  • Moved an entire section, including the title, and the heading format was left behind.
  • Placed the cursor at the start of the heading and created a new line.

UDOIT recognizes this issue because the heading is coded in a way that is similar to one of the following formats:

  • <h4>[no text here]</h4>
  • <h2><strong>[no text here]</strong></h2>
  • <h3><span style="font-size: x-large; color: #ee0000;">[no text here]</span></h3>
  • <h4 style="font-weight: bold;">[no text here]</h4>
  • <h2><img src="https://source/8399" alt="[no text here]" width="240" height="230"></h2>

False Negative

If your heading contains a space or the Unicode &nbsp;, UDOIT will not recognize the heading as being empty. It is not common for an empty--or in this case invisible--heading to only contain a space, but if it happens to you, this is why UDOIT has not flagged it.

How To Fix It

U FIX IT! Button

Within UDOIT, if you click the U FIX IT! button, you will be provided with

  • A New heading text field.
  • A Delete this Header completely instead checkbox.

If you're confident that this empty heading should be deleted, check the checkbox and then click the Submit button.

If you're not really sure if it should be deleted, put "xxx" in the New heading text field and click the Submit button. Then click the page title above this result to open the page where the issue was located. Once there, look for the xxx heading and determine if you still need it. If you don't, delete the xxx and the line they were on then save the page. If you do need the xxx heading, replace the xxx with the appropriate text and then save the page.

Return to Top of Tabbed Panel

Last Updated January 2017.
Clemson Online