I Validated!

1 page down, 299 to go.

[shasan]

Not sure why I tried, since so many sites bigger and more important than mine don't even bother, but I finally got my index page to validate for HTML 4.01!

If nothing else, I feel like I accomplished something. And if not that, then at least I'm providing a backlink to w3c.

Now I just have to go fix the stuff I broke on other parts of the site so I could validate on one page.

:D

later.

[DrDoc]

Way to go! :)

[RussellC]

Once you go valid, you never go back. Good job.

[Fruit and Veg]

Yeah, validating is like Heroin.

Maybe you can just use your index page as a template and copy and paste the content in there.

[louiseB]

I know how you feel. I got 2 of my old framed sites to validate after using the <noframes> tag which I wasn't aware of when I created the sites way back when.

It does feel good to see the blue page!

Now to get my other sites with embeded .swf files to validate I will be happier. (having lot's of trouble)

Louise :)

[bcolflesh]

Now to get my other sites with embeded .swf files to validate...

You can trick the validator by using Javascript's document.write to echo your existing code.

[louiseB]

You can trick the validator by using Javascript's document.write to echo your existing code.

Thanks bcolflesh, I will look into this. Where is the best place to look for the correct code? Just a search on javascript?

[moltar]

Correct code would be just making your JS to write it into the document. Something like this will work:

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
document.write("YOUR HTML CODE GOES HERE");
</script>

[TGecho]

So in theory you could use JS to add stuff like the target attribute? Hmm... I guess that's not a good habit to get into ;)

[moltar]

Well, the point of validating is not to please W3C :) It's for user's sake.

[aus_dave]

If only I could get my clients to appreciate that the sites I design for them validate :).

[grandpa]

WTG Shasan. I'm only about 2 weeks ahead of you :-)
I don't know where you are with SEO, but I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but even today my limited knowledge has show pretty good results.

If only I could get my clients to appreciate that the sites I design for them validate

... or the boss.

[shasan]

Thanks everyone!

I was long of the opinion, "Everyone can see the damn thing, and even *insert huge company here* doesn't validate, so why bother?"

I see now why people like it so much. It's the warm fuzzy of being 'interoperable' the blue page was worth it.

Fortunately most of my site is run by include files, so it's not THAT big of a problem.

The only frustrating thing is that I use a couple of applications (such as message boards) which don't validate, so now I have to sort through their code. Nobody told these guys about separating the application and presentation, it's all over the place :P

Once I'm done that I bet I'll have a devil of a time with the CSS since CSS is the proverbial rug that I swept everything under.

Oh well, at least I'll have that accomplished feeling to look forward to.

[g1smd]

I always think of that time when people suddenly "get" what CSS is all about, and consistently spell check their content, and run their HTML and CSS through the respective validators, is when they transition from being just am amateur designer to being a "web professional". I know someone who gets paid to design websites for a large company but who is still an "amateur coder" as far as I am concerned, as there is no code checking done, no formal plan, just a website cobbled together and uploaded. They "get by" (and that really isn't good enough).

[ronin]

The only frustrating thing is that I use a couple of applications (such as message boards) which don't validate...

This is precisely my problem. I want all my pages to validate and in fact I check all the code that I write to make sure that it does... but I have two external objects on every one of my pages and the code for each doesn't validate.

If I want to use the objects I am not allowed to alter the code. So the only alternative left seems to be that I could get rid of the two objects - but it would mean that my website would lose functionality.

Is there any way I can surround the objects with some code, so that I don't have to make a copy of each page, manually remove the objects, run the new copy through the validator and then post the original not-quite-validated page online?

[amznVibe]

Validation is simply a syntax check. A perfectly valid page can (and usually without alot more work) will look differently in nearly every browser. Validation is overrated... testing in the 5 most often used browsers however is never a waste of time.

[ronin]

Well... at a guess, most web designers who validate their code probably browser-test as well. But browser testing wouldn't be necessary if the browser programmers wrote browsers which displayed the code the way it asks to be displayed. I'm thinking of one browser in particular here...

[MatthewHSE]

one browser in particular here...

Now what browser could you possibly mean? :-)

[g1smd]

>> If I want to use the objects I am not allowed to alter the code. <<

I have always amended such code to make it validate without changing the fuctionality of it, like adding an alt attribute to an external counter graphic, and so on. I think that such changes do come under "fair usage" of the code. I think that by saying "don't change the code" they mean to not fiddle with the format of the information that queries their server. The same thing would apply to banner ads and other such "externally supplied" content.