html validating - quotes

[HuhuFruFru]

i always used dreamweaver, i didn't know that this programm makes so many errors - because i just validated for the first time in my life some of my html-files and one of the most occuring errors is:

"The attribute value "Bilder/links.gif" for the "src" attribute was not enclosed in single or double quotation marks when it must be."

is it a big mistake, when the quotes are missing? for example

font color=#000000
instead of
font color="#000000"

i mean for the smaller things like width, color, links.

because i haven't seen any disadvantages until yet (when it comes to search engines)

[SuzyUK]

all attrbutes are required to be quoted in XHTML but they still work without because of backwards compatibility..

If you're serious about producing valid code it is probably best to get into the habit of quoting everything, saves remebering which will work and which wont

Suzy

[korkus2000]

What version of dreamweaver are you using?

[HuhuFruFru]

dreamweaver mx 6.0

[korkus2000]

Here is a tutorial on setting up Dreamweaver to produce valid documents.
http://www.edgeofmyseat.com/tutorials/tutorial4.asp

[HuhuFruFru]

and how important are the color,width ... quotes for search engines?
i have hundreds of pages, changing them all would take so much time!

do search engines care about it?

thank you for sharing your experience!

[korkus2000]

No I don't think it matters yet. All attributes need to be quoted to be valid.

[SuzyUK]

HuhuFruFru

i have hundreds of pages, changing them all would take so much time!

There are some FREE text editors that will convert the code for you..

I use NoteTab Lite you can specify to change case of tags and/or attributes and if you select change to xhtml it will automatically quote the attributes, I'm sure there are others too, might make life easier..

Suzy

[g1smd]

In HTML 4.01 you must quote all attributes that contain anything other than just A to Z and 0 to 9. So, all "#FFFFFF" colour attributes (contains #), all "50%" sizes (contains %), and all URLs (contains : / and .) must be quoted. It is recommended to quote all attributes, and write all tags and attributes in lower case.

Is it important? For some issues, yes it is. Netscape, for example, ignores all non-quoted color=FFFFFF statements.

In XHTML you must quote all attributes and they must be in lower case.

[HuhuFruFru]

okay, netscape is not important i think- here in austria only 3% (in my logfiles showing) use netscape.

[pageoneresults]

HuhuFruFru, you are taking the easy way out. One of the more common errors that I see with many websites is the failure to quote attributes.

It is a requirement for validation. It is also a requirement for many other things. To say that NN4x represents 3% of your audience and that is not enough to justify correcting the issue is not valid justification! ;)

If DW operates in any similar manner to FP, correcting this is fairly simple. In FP, I set my page preferences according to my requirements and quoted attributes are mandatory.

If I open a page in FP and view the html and there are no quoted attributes, I can right click, reformat html and viola, all attributes are now quoted and lower case. Why? Because I just applied my default preferences to that page.

I've been getting more and more requests to assist people in validating their pages and FP has been a big plus. A couple of weeks ago, I took a 110 page site that was an absolute mess. Ran it through my FP preferences and got it to validate in under 4 hours.

I had to open every single page and apply my formatting rules, but, that is a heck of lot simpler than doing it by hand! Check and see if this option is available in DW.

[victor]

3% is some people's profit margin :)

Maybe the Netscape visitors would stay longer if the site rendered happily for them.

I don't know any downside to having fully-validated HTML and CSS. If it doesn't validate it may cause problems, and that's a business risk I'd rather not take.

[HuhuFruFru]

I was only wondering if this quote-thing is so important, why is the default settings of DW different than it should rather be?

but you have convinced me ... i think i better start reading korkus's tutorial :)

[andreasfriedrich]

I was only wondering if this quote-thing is so important, why is the default settings of DW different than it should rather be?

If security is important why then are most Microsoft products not configured with security in mind? Lazyness, ignorance, whatever...

There are just a lot of people who think that since most browsers understand the non-standard code that it is ok to use just that.

Andreas

[hakre]

it does not matter what browser is surfing on your site - it could be any. so if you want to get shure that any browser might be able to read your page, than you should use the standard formatting(s) defined with html or xhtml. i think it's that simple and easy.

by the way, you can even use html 2.0 in which it is allowed not to quote attribute values if they do not contain any space character.

in html 4.1 i ever thought it is the same. xhtml was the first time, it is said, you have to quote and you have to use double quotes for it. with html you can use single quotes and then use double quotes in the value and vice versa, in xhtml you have to use the according entities in values.

[andreasfriedrich]

In the absense of any language to the contrary (Since you said that one needs to use double quotes, have you found anything in it that I have overlooked hakre?) in the XHTML spec the usual XML quoting rules apply for XHTML compliant documents:

One may use either single or double quotes for attribute values.

[w3.org...]

BTW you quote the attribute values, not the attribute ;)

Andreas

[DrDoc]

And DO NOT use the FONT tag ;)
It is evil!

Especially if we're talking about XHTML and all that .. Then it's not even a valid tag.

[w3.org...]

About validating .. [webmasterworld.com...]