!doctype

Jools · #1 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 06:26 PM

I'm working on running my pages through the sites listed before I submit them for peer review, and I'm having a hard time with !doctype.

I can't seem to find anywhere in my books what to do with this. Can anyone look at my site at www.shaddowdomain.com and help me with this? What is it and where do I need to put it?

Thanks so much, I feel so silly, but I just can't find it : P

**wige** · #2 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 07:17 PM

The specific doctype you will use depends on what standard you followed when developing your web site.
If you use the validator at http://validator.w3.org/, at the top of the results page there is a pulldown that lets you select the doctype to validate against. Once you find the one that validates with your site from the list, you can add that doctype to the beginning (first line) of your page. So, if your site validates as XHTML 1.0 strict for example, the doctype you enter would be <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

Jools · #3 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 08:16 PM

Ok, I tried to validate with every one of them, and not one worked. *sigh*

Now what? What have I done so horribly wrong *grrr*.

sands · #4 (**permalink**) 09-12-2006, 04:15 AM

Your document matches closest to HTML 4.01. So add these lines to the top of the document code:

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

Then go to http://validator.w3.org/ and check out the errors found and make the required changes of which there should only be a few. For instance wherever there is & in the HTML code, change it to &. Also change the style tag from <style> to <style type="text/css">. And get rid of the height attribute on line 56. You are done.

Jools · #5 (**permalink**) 09-12-2006, 10:49 AM

I will do that, thanks so much!

So just for my own info, is my site (since I do my own code and I just look things up as I go along)kind of a "mutt" so to speak? Do I need to find a book on HTML 4.01 and stick to it to get the best results?

Also, I do a lot of my tweaking with Front Page. What code does that make? Should I find a different editor, or just use my Front Page and tweak my page with the validator when I'm done? How much does that matter?

sands · #6 (**permalink**) 09-12-2006, 11:33 AM

Front Page is MS and so the pages made with it are optimized for IE only. Validating the page would get rid of any problematic code.