Focus on information rather than presentation

The saying among Web heads is that content is king. Unfortunately, too often that content is intimately tied to how it's displayed. How many times have you come across a Web site with a little disclaimer saying "Best viewed at 800- by-600-pixel resolution"?

XML will help solve that problem because, rather than specifying where to display something, Web builders will be able to specify the structure of the document. For example, you can specify the document's title, its author, a list of related links, and so on. Then any device with an XML browser--a palm-top computer, a set-top box, or a high- powered workstation, for example--will be able to render a version of the document specifically tailored to that device.