HTML is based upon rules for how to write HTML. Browsers use those rules to display the web pages consistently. However, because HTML is written by people, there is a high probability that errors will creep in, even if you're using a WYSIWYG HTML editor.
Programmers know that when they write C code they have programs like debuggers to find problems, and they also have a program called "lint" to check for errors in the code. The same is true for HTML writers.
Once you have written a web page, you may notice that things you don't expect are happening. Invalid HTML may be causing the problem. If you validate your HTML, you can correct those problems and get a page that works as it should.
Validating About.com
One of my favorite online validators is Dr. Watson. It has a lot of different options and gives you more than just information about the HTML - you can find out how fast your page loads, verify links (including images), check search engine compatibility, and many other things.
Back in 1999, I put the About.com front page, http://www.about.com/, through the Dr. Watson validator. I chose to validate it with no special features, just "Analyze HTML syntax". These are some of the results.
Dr. Watson indicates the line number of the HTML so that you can easily find the problem. For example, the first error found is:
line #10: : use of ' for attribute value delimiter is not supported by all browsers (attribute CONTENT of tag META)
And line #10 in the HTML reads:
<META http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS-1.1"http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l gen true comment "RSACi North America Server" on "1998.04.15T07:38-0800" r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))'>
What Dr. Watson means here is that most attributes should be quoted with double quotes ("). Some browsers will get confused by the use of single quotes (') to define attribute values.
Other Confusing HTML Validator Results
line #15: : attribute 'TOPMARGIN' for <BODY> is extended markup (choose the appropriate extension option to allow this).
Extended markup is HTML that is beyond standard HTML. In this case, the topmargin attribute is an Internet Explorer attribute only. It does nothing in Netscape and other browsers.
line #15: : unknown attribute "MARGINWIDTH" for element <BODY>
The marginwidth attribute is not a recognized HTML attribute.
line #164: : </TR> on line 161 seems to overlap <TD>, opened on line 164
This is a tricky comment. Because of the number of nested tables on this web page, Dr. Watson may be getting confused. When I see this type of report, I ignore it until I've fixed the other errors I find. Then, if I still find errors, I'll validate the page in another validator.
line #216: : unknown attribute "HEIGHT" for element <input>
This is a common error. The input tag does not yet recognize the height, width, and alt tags that would be used when using an image as an input button. However, it's still a good idea to put them in, as these attributes work in the same fashion they do for the <img> tag.
line #229: : value for attribute WIDTH (100%) of element TABLE should be quoted (i.e. WIDTH="100%")
Many people leave off the quotes from attributes. In fact, many HTML editors write the HTML without quoted attributes. This is usually not a problem, but can cause confusion. When in doubt, it's best to use quotes on all attributes.
line #333: : unknown attribute "FONT" for element <font>
This is an actual error in the HTML code. It appears that there were originally two font tags that were incorrectly concatenated together.
line #587: : </A> on line 587 seems to overlap <B>, opened on line 587
When you write HTML, you need to make sure that tags are nested. For example, if you start a series of HTML tags: <b><i> close the inner tag first, then the outer tag: </i></b>.
But There are More Errors the HTML Validator Found
The About.com home page has a lot of HTML errors. This is mostly because it is a very complex page. It is built using a database and has a lot of nested tables. It also is fairly reliable in how it displays, but correcting the HTML errors would insure that the page stays consistent as browsers change.
The next page in this article includes the full results of the Dr. Watson validation.
