New Poll: Tag/Punctuation Placement

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Chris Coyier on (Updated on )

There is probably a right and wrong answer for this, so if that emerges, I’ll update this article and mention it in the results. Regardless, I don’t think it’s obvious, so this poll should be answered on what you currently actually do, not the “correct” answer.

Should special marks in sentences be contained within inline tags like strong and em, or outside of them.

For example:

Was that really Meg Ryan in <strong>Cherry 2000</strong>?

Or should the question mark come inside?

Was that really Meg Ryan in <strong>Cherry 2000?</strong>

Similar situation with commas. Inside example:

<em>No,</em> that was Melanie Griffith.

Outside example:

<em>No</em>, that was Melanie Griffith.

Tags are inside parentheses example:

In the Third Robot War (<em>see page 85</em>) human were decimated…

Tags are outside parentheses example:

In the Third Robot War <em>(see page 85)</em> human were decimated…