Validating Pages

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dennis D.
  • Start date Start date
D

Dennis D.

Using FrontPage 2002.

When I began coding my website I did verification and correction up to XHTML
1.1, but with FrontPage all that went out the window.

I am looking at my pages, and basically they are a coding mess. They work OK
using MSIE 6, but before I jump into Knowledge Management, advanced
authoring techniques, and detailed site and content management I want to be
able to work within a standard framework.

Is there a way, or what is the closest schema to use to validate and
standardize a FrontPage web using W3 standards? Or more simply, I want to
get my pages as correct as possible, that is, not having extraneous code,
and without basic coding errors.

I intend on eliminating and combining pages and adding content. So in that
process I will correct the code. Any recommendations please?

Dennis D.,
Webmaster,
http://www.dennisys.com/
 
Just run the pages through the W3C validator http://validator.w3.org/, and
fix the errors one by one. Sometimes there will be code that you realize is
invalid but choose to use anyway; it's your decision.
 
Thanks Patty:

In that solution the very first problem is missing DocType.
What it needs is a schema (on it's end) to compare the page against.
I have to tell it what schema to use, or it will default to HTML 4.01
Transitional.

If I choose XHTML I get more errors, but that may be the way to go because
of future FrontPage builds, such as FrontPage 2003+. There are 15-20
possible language schemas to choose from.
What I am asking is which one to use if any, or is there a better way to
validate my code. FrontPage uses a lot of proprietary code, but that code is
'recognized' by Microsoft browsers, so the browser displays it properly.

There is always the choice of writing for XHTML 1.1 Transitional, but that
gets into the 'browser wars.' I have been that route and found it to be way
too time consuming, because I basically had to write two different versions
of my website, and had little or no time for content creation. I also tried
near pure CSS with the same result. Believe it or not, different browsers
recognize different CSS sets, so back to 'browser wars' with that solution
as well.

So what is the 'Best' choice?
 
In that solution the very first problem is missing DocType.
Click to expand...

HTML 4.01 Loose Transitional is a good place to start. Here's the tag you
want to put at the top of each page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
... FrontPage uses a lot of proprietary code, but that code is 'recognized'
by Microsoft browsers, so the browser displays it properly.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how close to valid code you'll get from FrontPage, but if it
does write invalid code, you'll need to fix it by hand-coding.
There is always the choice of writing for XHTML 1.1 Transitional, but that
gets into the 'browser wars.' I have been that route and found it to be
way too time consuming, because I basically had to write two different
versions of my website, and had little or no time for content creation.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean, but none of that should be necessary. All browsers
support correctly-written XHMTL just fine. But you don't really need to
worry about XHTML (in my humble opinion!) XHTML is a good thing, but you'll
be fine with HTML for now.
I also tried near pure CSS with the same result. Believe it or not,
different browsers recognize different CSS sets, so back to 'browser wars'
with that solution as well.
Click to expand...

Oh, trust me, I'm well aware that there are differences in how browsers
render code. :-) However, using simple, well-written CSS shouldn't cause
you any problems in any modern browsers. Positioning with CSS takes some
skill, but there's nothing wrong with using tables for layout either.

I actually don't need to stress over different browsers at all these days. I
check pages in the major browsers as I work, and make sure I know what kind
of code is going on my pages, that it's good and clean, and it's really no
problem.

Anyway, I'd suggest using that DOCTYPE, running the page through the
validator, and using the process of correcting the errors as a learning
opportunity. Google for the answers, or post here..
 
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