The latest version of the basic publishing language of the Web -- HTML -- should be OK'd by the beginning of '98.

The World Wide Web Consortium in November issued HTML 4.0 standards after a working group completed specifications for industry-wide adoption.

The 220 member organizations of the consortium, created to develop common protocols on the Web, is entering the review and voting process phase, which is expected to last about six weeks.

W3C has described this new generation of HMTL as an improvement on the "look and functionality of Web pages, offering several key improvements of the current HTML 3.2."

"The latest version of HTML offers a lot more availability and access," said Sally Khudairi, W3C spokesperson.

Here are some of the features:

-- gives more accessibility to the disabled with text able to be rendered into Braille or speech.

-- allows publishers to display a richer HTML on any button, build keyboard shortcuts into page controls, and create read-only documents for copyright protections that prevent users from copying data to their hard disks.

-- provides markup needed for any language, including multilingual documents.

There are also in-line frames, enhanced tables, and support for objects and scripts.

 1. Dynamic HTML
 2. New Domains
 3. Metered Bandwidth
 4. Web-TV
 5. Rich Ads
 6. The Big Chill
 7. Middlemen
 8. Digital Detente
 9. Cybercommerce
10. Web standards

 1. Push
 2. Windows CE
 3. 56K
 4. Cable Modem
 5. Web-TV
 6. Net Magazines
 7. Apple's Demise
 8. Mac Clones
 9. E-Cash
10. Comdex '96