help with h tags and validation

[amythepoet]

Hi,

I would like some help with headers tags on my first page please.

Now, I have two h2 tags and I believe that is wrong, but I am trrying to get people's attention so I would like to make the text stand out.

Maybe if the second h2 tag was a bit smaller, it would be fine too.

Please advise.

Thanks

-a-

[amythepoet]

Ok, I'm rolling up my sleeves and will see what I can find.

Thanks so much

[amythepoet]

I'm gettting there, down to 5 errors, here is the next one.

Line 72, column 80: end tag for "a" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

...o.tv/order.html"> Place Your Order</b></a><br/>

You may have neglected to close a tag, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" a tag; that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".

[tedster]

The </b> tag is the problem. I don't know where (or even if) you opened it, but it's clear that the open anchor tag <a href=""> is right there before "Place Your Order" - and so the closing </a> must occur before any other activity.

It's probably what is called a "nesting" error - your open and close tags must nest inside each other - closing elements in the reverse order from the way they were opened.

Delete the </b> (if there is no <b>), or move it to a position where it is nested properly.

[amythepoet]

Ok, that is fixed now.

Now, I have a problem with this line:

<b>2. Complete my Poetry Questionnaire which will be sent to you upon receipt of your Order. View a <a href="samplequestionnaire.html">sample questionnaire.</a></p>

From that line on, and including that line, the text is all bold,

[amythepoet]

Regarding my last question, would it be o.k. if I just wrote Complete my poetry questionnaire and have Poetry questionnaire as a link to my sample questionnaire, or would that be confusing to readers?

[TheDoctor]

I think the wording is okay.

The text is all bold because you've got a "<b>" at the beginning of the line. Should that be a a "<p>"?

Let us know if you'd like help using CSS to format the page.

[amythepoet]

Hi, yes I would like help with my CSS sheet

I did change the code to a <p> and when I look at the page now , it appears all bold, I mean, from that line and to the end.

There must be an extra bold code in their someplace, correct?

[amythepoet]

I did it! The page is now xhtml transitional! Hurray!

Thank you so so much!

Now, could I get some help with my css sheet?

[g1smd]

The fee doubles for CSS problems......

:-)

.

Aww, heck. Twice nothin' is still nothin'.

[amythepoet]

You're all so terrific, I don't know what I would do without you!

Now, as for the CSS sheet, I see that that can be validated too? Should I try to validate it and see what happens?

[g1smd]

See: [jigsaw.w3.org ]

You can enter the URL of the CSS file OR the URL of a page that USES that file. It will work just the same.

[amythepoet]

Ok, I will take a look, and thanks

[amythepoet]

Oh boy, lots of problems here, and the first thing I see is the color problem

I'd like to change the colors actually

here is the report:

W3C CSS Validator Results

To work as intended, your CSS style sheet needs a correct document parse tree. This means you should use valid HTML.

Errors

*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-3dlight-color doesn't exist : coral
*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-arrow-color doesn't exist : coral
*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-base-color doesn't exist : coral
*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-darkshadow-color doesn't exist : coral
*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-face-color doesn't exist : navajowhite
*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-shadow-color doesn't exist : white
*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-highlight-color doesn't exist : white
*Line: 0 Context : BODY

Property scrollbar-track-color doesn't exist : white
*Line: 0 Context : A:hover

Parse Error - 11px;
*Line: 0

Parse Error - : green;} h1
*Line: 0

Parse error - Unrecognized : };
*Line: 0

Parse error - Unrecognized : };
*Line: 0 Context : .small

Invalid number : colorslategray is not a color value : slategray

Valid CSS information

*BODY {
*font-family : Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif, sans-serif;
*font-size : 12px;
*color : black;
*background-color : #ffffff;
*padding-top : 10px;

}
*A:active {
*color : #000000;

}
*A:link {
*color : #aa0000;

}
*A:visited {
*color : #aa0000;

}
*{
*font-size : 18px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*font-weight : bold;
*color : #000000;

}
*h2 {
*font-size : 13px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*font-weight : bold;
*color : #000000;

}
*.left {
*font-size : 12px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*color : #000000;

}
*.right {
*font-size : 12px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*color : #000000;

}
*.small {
*font-size : 10px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

}
*.main {
*font-size : 11px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*color : #000000;

}
*a.main {
*font-size : 11px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*color : #000099;

}
*.nav {
*font-size : 11px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*color : #000000;

}
*.pst {
*font-size : 16px;
*font-weight : bold;
*font-family : arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

}
*.viewlarge {
*font-family : Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
*font-size : 10px;
*color : #000000;

}
*.poemtitle {
*font-family : Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
*font-size : 10px;
*color : #000000;
*font-weight : bold;

}
*#bordercell {
*border-left : 1px dotted #000000;

}
*#bgtd {
*background-color : #faad5b;
*background-image : url(imagery/bg-middle.jpg);
*width : 100%;
*vertical-align : top;

}
*h3 {
*font-size : 12px;
*font-family : verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
*font-weight : bold;
*color : #000000;

}

------------------------------------------------------------------------

www-validator-css
Last Updated : Sunday, August 1, 2004 1:08:58 AM MEST

[edited by: tedster at 2:35 am (utc) on Aug. 1, 2004]
[edit reason] remove urls [/edit]

[TheDoctor]

First, I'd get rid of the URLs, as they aren't allowed.

Secondly, the main problem seems to be that you've included a whole lot of Microsoft-specific stuff to do with scrollbars. This is not standard CSS and therefore won't validate. It's your call whether you include it or not. I wouldn't, but that's just a personal preference.

Thirdly, you don't need to keep repeating the font-family. Once in the body is enough. What you've done won't create problems, but your file will be more readable if you don't duplicate stuff. You've also got "sans-serif" twice in the font-family for the body, which isn't necessary.

Is there anything that you want to achive that isn't working?

[amythepoet]

HI, sorry I put in the url, my mistake.

Yes, I would like to change the colors of the whole site to something more pleasing.

I think the colors are too harsh now and do not know how to do it.

[tedster]

OK, fess up now Amy - you're trying to fix a website that someone else built for you, right? It's OK - happens all the time.

At any rate, colors are commonly placed on your pages in 2 ways - they are either an image or they are declared in a CSS style (or sometimes in older HTML as a tag attribute rather than as a style.)

So to change colors, you either change the images, or the style rules, or both.

You get better browser cooperation if you use the hex numbers for colors, rather than the "English" names - especially when you venture out into the far territories beyonc the basic color names like black, white, red, blue, etc. Except for your scrollbar rules, most of your colors in that stylesheet are black (#000000) and white (#ffffff).

The HTML Goodies [htmlgoodies.com] website has a good tutorial that explains how hex numbers designate color.

[amythepoet]

Right, I've had numerous web designers!

Anyway, I would just like to change the background colors

I will take a look at your chart and see.