HTML Reference-Lesson 1

Validating

First stage

Before you start writing individual pages, you need to write your template page. You should include, if possible, the navigation for your web site. It, obviously, should be subject to amendment, but if you can plan ahead, then so much the better.

You should also include your basic style file.

View your template page in as many browsers as you can lay your hands on. Any obvious errors may be typing errors. Look for missing tag brackets, forward slashes and quotes are popular errors.

Second stage

The second stage of validation is to use a program like CSE Validator. You may find that the free version mentions that the 'standard' or 'pro' versions would have found further errors. Do not worry yourself too much. The time to consider getting a paid-for version is when the free version validates first time, every time, more or less.

If there are a lot of errors, CSE Validator stops reporting them after a reasonable number. Correct these errors and try validating again.

Remember also to validate your style file.

Third stage

Go to the World Wide Web Consortium site. There is a link menu down on the bottom of the left-hand column. There are two items in this menu, CSS Validator and HTML Validator. First validate your HTML file for HTML and then validate both your CSS and HTML files for CSS.

An unusual validation error

You may come across an error in which some tags are not allowed within certain others. This because there are two types of tags, Block level and Inline.

Inline tags can be nested within both Block level tags and other Inline tags, while Block level tags can only be nested within other Block level tags.

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