Up to this point, we have alluded to two possible, different approaches to page design with HTML5 elements. The first is to assign actual layout attributes (size, position, float, and so on) to HTML5 elements. This is a basic, simple, intuitive, and potentially very powerful way to use HTML5 elements to design pages.
When we build HTML5 pages from scratch in the next chapter, we will use that approach. Moreover, as we will see then, such an approach has specific applicability for HTML5-friendly environments such as iPhones, iPod Touchs, and iPads.
However, that is not the approach taken in the Dreamweaver layouts, and for arguably valid reasons. In those layouts, much (not all) of formatting and positioning is defined by old-fashioned <div>
tags that envelope (surround, and supply inherited formatting and positioning to) the HTML5 elements.
There are three basic advantages to this approach: