[whatwg] One label: multiple fields

[Simon Pieters]

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:37:31 +0100, Elliotte Harold  
<elharo at metalab.unc.edu> wrote:

> Currently in HTML 4, and apparently in Web Forms 2, there is a rule that  
> each label element applies to exactly one input field. 10 inputs, at  
> least 10 labels.
>
> However looking at a number of tabular but not exactly repeating forms,  
> both on the Web and on paper, I notice that it common for the column  
> headers to essentially serve as label for the input fields. For example
>
>
>              Homework 1  Homework 2 Homework 3
> John Smith    87           86         98
> Jane Jones   100           78         98
> Fred Wilde    89           65         69
>
> What strikes me about examples like this is that the labels for the  
> input fields naturally apply to more than one input field. For example,  
> in the above each label covers three fields. I wonder if there's a  
> common use case to say something like
>
> <label for="A1 A2 A3">Homework 1</label>
> <label for="B1 B2 B3">Homework 2</label>
> <label for="C1 C2 C3">Homework 3</label>
>
> Currently this is not possible. The label's for attribute can only point  
> to one input element.

We could just say that if a form control is in a table data cell, and  
doesn't have a <label> associated with it, then the cell's header cells  
are labels for the form control.

-- 
Simon Pieters