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ie parts > widgets > Blue Widgets
I used > literally instead of > in the html code.
Since I made this change in the master template, I how have several hundred pages to change.
Explorer 6 does not care less and displays the > properly. What browsers will mess this up and destroy my tag. Or is this something we don't need to worry about anymore.
I suggest using a decent text editor that will let you perform search and replace over multiple files.
That way you can search for "parts > widgets > Blue Widgets" and replace with "parts > widgets > Blue Widgets" or whatever. At least that will save some time.
I'd also suggest that you use a validator [validator.w3.org], especially on your 'master template', so you avoid errors like this in the future.
Also you should consider using PHP or SSI to include your templates - that way you would only have one file to change :)
My apology, I should have clarified myself, this tag would be useful, for non-english or multilanguage sites.
And google does brings this tag up alot on non English speaking sites.
Back to the special character entity. I know that by not using it, im not complying fully with html 4.0. What im more interested in is, which browsers will break it.
I have checked 10 big name brand box sites, and guess what, none of them are using the &xx; form for & < > anymore.
I guess IE has made a lot of web designers sloppy over the years.
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=zzz">This is a required element. Do not leave it out.
Strictly-speaking, it is not the meta tag which is mandatory, but the definition of the character set. If your entire site uses the same charset, you can set it in httpd.conf or .htaccess (if you are using Apache), allowing you to remove the meta tag and still have the page validate.
For example, if you are using iso-8859-1, you can add this to the .htaccess:
AddType text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 .html