Hi,
I just ran the W3C validator and found hundreds of errors. 
Where do I begin? I use a hosting company’s shopping cart and wizard software. The wizard allows me to cut and paste HTML code from another package and input "my own" html. It’s all compiled and uploaded to the web on the hosting server.
The validator found hundreds of errors on my home page so I thought I would take a look at smaller chunks. I tried to validate by direct input the code I created for the body of the home page. I put the code into the form and it cannot validate because I don’t have a document type declaration. The code doesn’t have the beginning and ending tags because I’m not supposed to put that in with the wizard.
I looked at the information available on document type declarations and I’m completely lost. Help!
Thanks,
Z4K
No question about it, the online validators will scramble your brain! It took me a very long time to figure it out and I have only done it for a few of my sites.
Try this for the doc type.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
It is a long process to validate your page, and some items may never validate if you are using an automated script or service. For example, you may have
<p>some text<br>
<p>more text</p>
Which will error out because it should be:
<p>some text</p>
<p>more text</p>
Or
<p>some test<br>
more text</p>
So, you can see that it is very picky! But, the good news is that the bots still read all the version above as valid. The main items you need to focus on are proper structure, such as:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
If you validate this very page, you’ll see it has many errors, but it still does well.
Best regards,
Jim.
Hi Jim,
Thanks so much for the declaration statement to use and the example errors. I certainly had a lot of those errors. I feel better knowing that the bots will still read them as valid. As I have time I will clean them.
Any recommendations for an HTML book for complete idiots? I can see I need to dig deeper beyond just trusting the wizard software….
Thanks,
Z4K
No recommendation on a HTML book, sorry – it has been awhile and most of what I picked up was from the net over time.
You could always hire it out, but there is nothing like doing it yourself if you are really interested in learning.
I’ll help where and when I can…
Best regards,
Jim.
I cannot make the
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
work for anything! If I take off the bottom line, my site works fine. If I leave it on, I’ve got scrambled eggs. Does anybody know what the correct doctype is, and how to make it work?
Thanks!
Doctype I have is:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
and it works fine, but the page will impact validation.
Are you using a validation service and getting an error?
Send my the url of your site and I’ll take a look. You can click on AMPC and send me a private message if your like.
Regards,
Jim.
I used a program to do this, but now I want to start over and try to do it myself. Here’s the sample html from the template I’m building.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>Jeff’s 60′s</TITLE>
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Jeff Owenby">
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="60′s, the sixties, memories of growing up in the sixites, Baby boomers, retro, memoribilia,growing up, remembering the 60′s, the 60′s, the sixties, vintage, toys, models, collectibles, vintage television, movies, music, the 70′s, the seventies,generation X, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969.grade school.">
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Welcome to the Sixties! Share my memories of growing up during retro. I remember many things from this marvelous era. Browse these pages for topics and essays on the sixties and seventies.">
<
<STYLE TYPE="text/css"><!–
.F04 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:#ff0000;}
.F01 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:#000000;}
.F02 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;}
.F03 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:#0000ff;}
#A3 {text-decoration:none;color:#ff0000;}
#A4 {text-decoration:none;color:#0000ff;}
#A12 {text-decoration:none;color:#000000;}
#A13 {text-decoration:none;color:#000000;} –>
</STYLE>
<body>
<DIV STYLE="position: absolute;left:222;top:150;width:158;height:127;">
<img src="kidlogo2.jpg" width="158" height="127"></div>
<div style="position: absolute; left:350; top:360; width:341; height:326;">
<img src="60splash02.jpg" width="341" height="326"></div>
<div style="position: absolute; left:5; top:0; width:144; height:830;">
<img src="60s-sidebar3.jpg" width="144" height="830"></div>
<div style="position:absolute; left:400; top:195; width: 600; height:80;">
<a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a> <a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a>
<br>
<a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a> <a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a> </div>
<div style="position: absolute; left:348; top:5; width:454; height:120;">
<img src="welpic.jpg" width="454" height="120"></div>
<DIV STYLE="position:absolute;left:448;top:141;width:35 0;height:40;">
<table>
<td>
<center>
<FORM ACTION="ht tp: //search.freefind.com/find.html"
METHOD="GET"
accept-charset="utf-8" target="_self">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="id" VALUE="40222113">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="pid" VALUE="r">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="mode" VALUE="ALL">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="_charset_" VALUE="">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="bcd" VALUE="÷">
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="query" SIZE="20">
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT"
VALUE=" Find It "><input type="RESET"
name="reset" value="Reset"><br>
</html>
</body>
Why don’t you tell me what you want the page to do and we can go from there. Also, how much experience do you have and I’ll know where to start from.
Regards,
Jim.
I thank you so much!! I have a site jeffs60s.com that I built with Web Easy Pro 5. I tried to validate it last year, and it came up with over 200 errors. I know that there are tons of scripting errors in it.
So, I decided that I would like to try and re-build it from scratch, doing it the right way. The template you corrected was my first attempt. My experience level I would have to say is beginner.
I’ve tried numerous books, and some help, but I notice that the authors all contradict each other. So, it’s hard to know what is correct.
I truly appreciate all your help though!
Oops, I noticed that the script that you corrected is still scrambling the page.
What I’m trying to achieve is the look of my home page of www.jeffs60s.com (except for the animation which I know is Java).
Here’s a sample of the script I started with: I copied and pasted everything up to the first <DIV> tag, then wrote the rest of it myself.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<!– Generated by VCOM Technology V5.0. For information please visit: v-com.com –>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Jeff’s 60′s</TITLE>
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Jeff Owenby">
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="60′s, the sixties, memories of growing up in the sixites, Baby boomers, retro, memoribilia,growing up, remembering the 60′s, the 60′s, the sixties, vintage, toys, models, collectibles, vintage television, movies, music, the 70′s, the seventies,generation X, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969.grade school.">
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Welcome to the Sixties! Share my memories of growing up during retro. I remember many things from this marvelous era. Browse these pages for topics and essays on the sixties and seventies.">
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!–//
IE=(navigator.appName.indexOf(‘Microsoft’) >= 0);
NS=(navigator.appName.indexOf(‘Netscape’) >= 0);
V4=(parseInt(navigator.appVersion) >= 4);
V5=(parseInt(navigator.appVersion)>=5);
V5=(V5||navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 5")!=-1);
V5=(V5||navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 6")!=-1);
MAC=(navigator.userAgent.indexOf(‘Mac’)!=-1); //–>
</SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.2"><!–//
IDP={}; IDP[0]=0;
isOvr=0; function OnWeOver(snd,txc,txv,img,imv,ref,flag){}//–>
</SCRIPT>
<STYLE TYPE="text/css"><!–
.F04 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:#ff0000;}
.F01 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:#000000;}
.F02 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;}
.F03 {font-family:’Arial’,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:#0000ff;}
#A3 {text-decoration:none;color:#ff0000;}
#A4 {text-decoration:none;color:#0000ff;}
#A12 {text-decoration:none;color:#000000;}
#A13 {text-decoration:none;color:#000000;} –>
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#800080" ALINK="#FF0000" onLoad="if(V4) OnWeLoad()" onResize="OnWeResize()">
<DIV STYLE="position:absolute;left:10;top
;width:54;he ight:5000;">
<a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_002.htm" title="PREVIOUS PAGE">
<img border="0" src="whitenav.png" width="75" height="5000">
</a></div>
<DIV STYLE="position:absolute;left:925;top:0;width:54;h eight:5000;">
<a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_002.htm" title="NEXT PAGE">
<img border="0" src="whitenav.png" width="75" height="5000">
</a></div>
<DIV STYLE="position:absolute;left:170;top:287;width:15 9;height:370;">
<font size="4"><font face="times new roman"><font color="ff0000"><b>
<link><link color="6699ff"><vlink color="AA0000"></link>
<a href="jeffs60s.com" style="text-decoration: none;">Home</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_002.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" Title="GO HERE FOR MANY OTHER TOPICS OF INTERESTE NOT LISTED ON THE MAIN PAGES!">Site Map</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_003.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="BEFORE GRADE SCHOOL CAME THE BIZARRE WORLD OF KINDERGARTEN, DAYTIME TELEVISION, SCARY MONSTERS, AND DR. VISITS!">Early Memories</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_027.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" Title="THESE ARE MY MEMORIES OF GRADE SCHOOL FROM KINDERGARTEN THROUGH 6TH GRADE.">School Days</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_014.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" Title="THE GREAT TELEVISION SHOWS OF THE 60′S. OH, HOW I MISS THEM.">60′s Television</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_011.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="FROM PLASTIC ARMY MEN TO PLASTIC ARMY HELMETS. THESE ARE WONDERFUL MEMORIES OF MY ARMY TOYS.">Army Toys</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_012.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">G.I. Joe</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_013.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="AURORA MONSTER MODELS THAT I COLLECTED AND BUILT OVER AND OVER AGAIN.">Monster Models</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_023.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">Comics</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_025.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="REMEMBER TEAR DROP COFFEE TABLES, CONSOLE STEREOS AND PERCOLATORS? FROM POLE LAMPS TO RETRO COUCHES, CHECK OUT THESE WONDERFUL OLD HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS.">Cool Furniture</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_009.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="THE GREAT DRIVE-IN CULTURE OF THE 60′S WAS INDEED A WONDERFUL ERA.">Drive-In Movies</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_028.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">60′s Music</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_017.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">The Beatles</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_029.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="SCHOOL’S OUT, AND SO IS THE SUN. THESE ARE SOME OF MY FUN SUMMER MEMORIES.">Summer Days</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_021.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">Games & Toys</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_018.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND THE ERA OF PSYCHEDELIA. BLACK LIGHTS, BEADS, POSTERS, AND HIP-HUGGERS. TUNE IN, DROP OUT, AND CHECK IT OUT!">1969</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_022.htm" style="text-decoration: none;" TITLE="THE WORLD WAS CHANGING AND SO WAS I.">The 70′s</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_002.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">Contact Me</a><br>
<link><link color="ff0000"><vlink color="0000ff"></link><a href="jeffs60s.com/jeffs60s_002.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">Links</a></font size="4"></font face="times new roman"></font color="ff0000"></b></i><br>
</DIV>
<div style="position:absolute; left:448; top:4975; width: 150; height:10;">
<font face="arial"><font size="2"><a href="#top">Back to Top</a></font size="2"></div>
<div style="position:absolute; left:400; top:5; width: 10; height:10;">
<a name="top"></a></div>
<div style="position: absolute; left:350; top:360; width:341; height:326;">
<img src="60splash02.jpg" width="341" height="326"></div>
<div style="position: absolute; left:5; top:0; width:144; height:830;">
<img src="60s-sidebar3.jpg" width="144" height="830"></div>
<DIV STYLE="position: absolute;left:222;top:150;width:158;height:127;">
<img src="kidlogo2.jpg" width="158" height="127"></div>
<div style="position:absolute; left:400; top:195; width: 600; height:80;">
<a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a> <a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a>
<br>
<a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a> <a href="http:www.jeffs60s.com/toys.html">Title of a Link Goes Here</a> </div>
<div style="position: absolute; left:348; top:5; width:454; height:120;">
<img src="welpic.jpg" width="454" height="120"></div>
<DIV STYLE="position:absolute;left:448;top:141;width:35 0;height:40;">
<table>
<td>
<center>
<FORM ACTION="ht tp: //search.freefind.com/find.html"
METHOD="GET"
accept-charset="utf-8" target="_self">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="id" VALUE="40222113">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="pid" VALUE="r">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="mode" VALUE="ALL">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="_charset_" VALUE="">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="bcd" VALUE="÷">
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="query" SIZE="20">
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT"
VALUE=" Find It "><input type="RESET"
name="reset" value="Reset"><br>
</html>
</body>
Hi Jeff, I just corrected the html errors on the page, not the formatting. Redoing your layout would be too time consuming for me – wish I could be of more help, but that is something you’ll have to do on your own. Where do you start? If you want the easy road, I would start a wordpress blog (which is really a website in which you only have to write content). There are thousands of themes to choose from that would fits any taste and you don’t have to worry about validation, seo and much of anything else. You may think it would just be easier to work with the files yourself through some type of html editor, but I am confident that a few months from now, you’ll wonder why someone didn’t mention this sooner! WordPress has some free docs and there are a ton of easy to understand books at Barnes and Noble. Regards, Jim.
Thanks, Jim!