Lesson 11

Validation of HTML

In general there are two types of HTML Validators. The first type corrects the errors automatically. The drawback of this type is that you do not learn from your mistakes which you are apt to repeat. The second type of Validator programs inform you of the errors that they find. Unfortunately, they report every instance of each type of error. Because of the way that they work, one error can look like a whole series of errors. You certainly learn from this type of program.

Do not rely on a browser to validate your html. It will be very tolerant of errors. However, it will show your gross errors so try it first. However, because the browser has to interpret a number of different standards of html, it is most tolerant of errors.

The Validator that I now use is the CSE Validator. It comes in three 'flavours': CSE Validator Lite is the free version. It is not so thorough as the Standard and Pro versions, but it finds enough errors for the beginner to handle. However, it informs you that the Standard and Pro versions would have found x more errors and comments. The time to upgrade is when you consistently get a nil error return from the Lite version.

Another way to validate a page is to be found on the W3C website, but it only takes one page at a time. Aeneas HTML Validator is a progam which will submit a whole batch of pages in one go. This is a great improvement.

Validation of CSS files

Style Studio from www.style-sheets.com provides a very good CSS Validator. It probably will show more faults than you are willing to correct, but, at least you will know where your weak points are. Top Style still remains my favourite for editing CSS files.

Use of HTML comments

HTML comments, <!-- and -->, were introduced in Lesson 10. There are, however, further uses for them in web sites that are fresh and up-to-date. They enable you to plan ahead and prepare future additions to your menu. When you have written the new pages, all you have to do is to remove the comment tags and there you are. Another use is for seasonal pages where the details change from year to year. By commenting out the out of date items you only have to update the content and remove the comment tags. I do this on the 'walk' pages of this site.

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