Is it ok to use <strong> in place of <b> blindly ?
- by metal-gear-solid
Note: I know <b> is presentational and <span style="font-weight:bold> is better way and <strong> and <em> for emphasis but my question is not regarding this.
Should we convert every <b> to <strong> blindly ? many people do this they think <b> is not good as per web standards so they convert every <b> to <strong> upon site redesign, content re-population, new site design and people suggest this to others also.
Dreamweaver has also given option to convert all <b> and <i> to <strong> and <em> on code paste in design view and when we use B and I Which people use blindly.
And Dreamweaver(if above option is checked) and many online WYSIWYG editor give output in <strong> and <em> while button shows B and I.
In my opinion it's creating misconception about <strong> and <b>
When we get content from client we don't know where client want to give emphasize and where he just want to use text bold for presentation purpose.What we should do in this condition? no one has time client and we both to give time to think for each bold text, it should be in <b> or in <strong>, <i> or in <em>
What are pros and cons to convert every <b> and <i> into <strong> and <em> blindly if we are saying our site is accessible?
Update: remember <b> and <i> are not deprecated there are in HTML 5 specification
