Content Formats

Desktop: XHTML 1.0 Transitional (Opens in new window)

Web content for desktop environments: should be optimised for a 1024x768 pixel resolution, however all content should also be scalable and designed to resize proportionally to the display size, available screen area and resolution. This may be accomplished through a liquid or fluid layout, that through the allocation of a percentage of space to each element, results in images, text and spaces proportional to display size. When designing e-learning content, you may need to make an allowance for the inclusion of the Learning Management System (LMS) and/or any content package player within the available screen area and allow for scaling of the content accordingly.

Given changes to the XHTML 1.0 specification since its inception it is suggested that developers refer to the XHTML media types second edition (Opens in new window) for additional information about the implementation of XHTML 1.0

Note:  HTML5 is not recommended at this time for use in development of content intended for widespread use in the VET sector because of the inconsistent implementation by browser developers.  Please see the E-standards for Training 2011 HTML5 Research report. If you choose to use HTML5 functionality, you should provide a fall-back mechanism for browsers not supporting that element.

Mobile: WML 1.3

Web pages should be encoded as UTF-8 and an encoding declaration should be included in the page source, but we strongly recommend that you avoid the use of a byte-order mark, which may appear as  or a small rectangle or

Explanation of BOM (Opens in new window)

Controlling the BOM (Opens in new window)

External CSS Level 1 (W3C 2006)

Link to external CSS with LINK, not @import

CSS 2.1 is the recommended standard for content developed for desktop environments.

* CSS 3.0 may be used for content developed for desktop environments provided that it degrades to CSS 2.0 until such time as all CSS 3.0 modules are ratified and supported.

PDF documents should be readable in Adobe Reader 9.0 and above.

PDFs are not automatically accessible but they can be considered accessible provided that they are correctly tagged. See Adobe Acrobat accessibility (Opens in new window) for further information.

Embedded fonts are recommended.

• RTF
• DOC

RTF and DOCX format compatible with Microsoft Office 2007. The MS Office Compatibility Pack allows document editing in older Office versions

Plain-text alternatives for interactive web content may be created as TXT files.

PowerPoint is a cross-platform compatible presentation application. Keynote and OpenOffice presentations may also be converted to a PowerPoint format to extend their interoperability.

GIF is recommended for images comprising flat or solid areas of colour.

JPEG is recommended for photographs and other images with smooth variations of colour (gradients). See JPEG - Typical Usage (Opens in new window) for further information.

PNG can be used for both the bitmap image types described above, and has the additional option of a transparent (alpha) channel. (JPEG will often produce a smaller file size, but with a quality trade-off).

The purpose of the audio content and intended delivery platform should be taken into consideration when choosing an audio format.

Content developers should maintain a balance between sound quality and the size of the MP3 file. Minimise the bit rate and sampling frequency where possible to ensure the MP3 file is not unnecessarily large.

Refer to MP3 - Audio Quality (Opens in new window) for further information.

MPEG 4 (H.264) (Opens in new window)

The delivery platform is the primary consideration in deciding the format of video content however the H.264 codec has the broadest application and support.
Content developers must balance quality with data rate while maintaining clarity and meaning.
The H.264 codec is recommended for both SWF and MP4 formats for broadest forward compatibility.

Desktop only: JavaScript 1.5 (ECMA-262 3rd Edition) (Opens in new window)

JavaScript or AJAX may be considered to be accessibility supported technologies provided they are used in an accessible manner and there are WCAG 2.0 sufficient techniques that support the use.  If no WCAG 2.0 Sufficient Techniques ^[1] exist to test the conformance then WCAG 2.0 conformance cannot be claimed.

SWF playable in Flash Player 10.

Mobile only: Flash Lite 2.0/3.0: Handsets that support it will play back Flash at 12-15 frames per second (fps).

Optimisation tips for mobile devices (Opens in new window)

Note: Flash Lite 2.0 and 2.1 do not have FLV support.

Flash is not spported on Apple (iOS) devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad). Provide non-Flash alternative to devices that do not support it

Note:
On November 9 2011, Adobe announced that it will stop development of the Flash player for mobile devices following the release of v11.1 for Android and BlackBerry.  (http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html (Opens in new window))

As a result, at their meeting in Melbourne on 29th November 2011 the E-standards Expert Group decided that as of 2013 it will no longer recommend Flash (swf) as a content format  for delivery of learner content in the VET sector, because it can no longer be deemed interoperable across the existing recommended devices.

This does not mean that support is withdrawn for existing content, or that  the recommendation is withdrawn immediately. It does mean that content developers should consider transitioning to alternative methods (for example JavaScript/HTML) of delivering accessible interactive content.

Unfortunately HTML5 is not recommended at this time for use in development of content intended for widespread use in the VET sector because of the inconsistent implementation by browser developers.  Please see the E-standards for Training 2011 HTML5 Research report. If you choose to use HTML5 functionality, you should provide a fall-back mechanism for browsers not supporting that element.

• Datamatrix (Opens in new window) or
• QR Code (2D barcodes) (Opens in new window)

Mobile Only: RFID (Opens in new window)