Validating html

[lostinfr]

Hi,
I'm using xoops cms, I'd never thought to validate the html before and I Just had a bit of a shock when I tried an online validator :eek: tons of errors, most of which I don't understand :confused: How important is it?
I tried validating a few other sites at random and was slightly relieved that they had errors to - though not nearly as many as mine :D
Are there any tools to fix errors, I tried using html tidy online for my custom html blocks but that just made more errors.

[philip]

The same thing happened to me, just I use phpwebsite instead of xoops.

I ignored the report, some of the errors it found seemed to be related to my site being 'php' not 'html'.

[traction]

I have recently been trying to make my site W3 valid, it just means that more people can access your site with other browsers and screen readers if you have no errors.

What errors dont you understand or even better, whats your site and we can look at the errors ourselves via W3 validator and maybe suggest ways of fixing them...

O.

[lostinfr]

Hi,

Thanks for the replys, it's http://www.lost-in-france.com/
There was about 800 errors :eek: I spent most of last night trying to work it out then decided to try and ignore them :D

[ukapolog]

I am very experienced with html and have written hundreds of web pages; With regard to those html validation things I never use them. They just thoroughly depress you! Even now I am pretty sure that some of my pages would fail those things. It is essential to learn really good html practises in the first place - then don't worry about the validation. But a good html editor will give you good quality html if you are worrying about it. I use Open Office html editor sometimes.

If you test your web page and it comes up fine on Firefox as well as IE (it is vital to test things on Firefox), you really don't need to worry too much.
But if your html is poor, use a html editor which allows you just to write and plan your page and it takes care of the html for you.

UK Apologetics (http://www.ukapologetics.net/)

[ukapolog]

Just checked your index page - it loads rapidly on both Firefox and IE6 - no apparent problems.
If you have any friends with more obscure browsers ask them to check it out too. If they all give you the thumbs-up don't worry any further.

[lostinfr]

Hi, Thanks for checking it :) I spent about a week getting it down from 860 to about 70, then decided my time would be better spent adding content, your right though it's depressing!

[ukapolog]

Reminds me of myself a few years ago!
I had this index page with all kinds of things on it including some great Javascript effects - I was quite proud of it!
Then one day I used a html valdation thing and it told me my page was a disaster - over a hundred errors!!
But it loaded fine on my browser, so I got some people together who were using more unusual bowsers and the page loaded fine for all of them although some could not get the Java. If you use a javascript menu just make an alternative menu available for those who cannot see it.
I did the same as you - I spent a few hours improving my html (which is not a bad thing to do) but it was still telling me I had a host of errors. In the end I ignored it, but I did become determined to only use the best html practises after that!

UK Apologetics (http://www.ukapologetics.net/)