Subtitles

This is a draft specification. It is likely that changes will still be made before the final specification.

Use the block subtitle element to mark up the subtitle of a page or section.

Notes

The subtitle element can contain a mixture of text and any general inline elements.
The subtitle can occur in a page element or a section element.
The style attribute takes a space-separated list of style hints. Processing tools should adjust their behavior according to those style hints they understand.
The subtitle element can have attributes from external namespaces. See External Namespaces for more information on external-namespace attributes.

Examples

Provide a title and a subtitle for a page:

<page id="ducks">
  <title>Ducks</title>
  <subtitle>Everything I Know About Ducks</subtitle>
</page>

Processing Expectations

A subtitle is displayed at the beginning of its containing element, after its corresponding title. It is generally displayed in a different font, size, or weight to make it stand out from the surrounding content, but it should be less prominent than its corresponding title.

Comparison to Other Formats

The subtitle element is similar to the subtitle element in DocBook.

DITA does not contain an element for subtitles.

Schema

The formal definition of the Mallard language is maintained in RELAX NG Compact Syntax in code blocks within this specification. This is the formal definition for the block subtitle element. The namespace declarations for this definition are on the page Pages.

mal_block_subtitle = element subtitle {
  mal_block_subtitle_attr,
  mal_block_subtitle_inline
}
mal_block_subtitle_attr = (
  attribute style { xsd:NMTOKENS } ?,
  mal_attr_external *
)
mal_block_subtitle_inline = mal_inline