Document type

[Carey]

How do figure out what document type a page is? Could diffent pages in the same website be a different document type?

[victor]

It depends on what level of HTML or XHTML you are aiming at.

Yes, different pages could be different doctypes. You may need to do that if you are rolling out a revamp.

Good place to start:

[alistapart.com...]

[Mohamed_E]

Yes, different pages could be different doctypes. You may need to do that if you are rolling out a revamp.

This can also be needed if one (or a few) page(s) requires a transitional feature that is not required in the other pages. So it is possible to have a site where almost all pages are strict, with a handful of transitional ones. Not elegant, but beats having everything transitional (which is what I am still doing :( )!

[Carey]

What I am having difficulty with is - choosing the right document type so the pages will validate. I am using FP 2000. I find it very confusing between what's 4.0 or 4.01 strict or transitional let alone the rest of the other types other than frames - my site is not in frames

[grahamstewart]

I doubt you will have much success producing valid code using Frontpage, but your best best is probably HTML4.01 Transitional.

[Carey]

I want to start doing my pages differently and actually I am thinking about just using notepad and adding some new (or new to me) designing elements.

[Elijah]

I am thinking about just using notepad and adding some new (or new to me) designing elements.

Instead of notepad I would suggest using:
1. Edit Pad Light
2. jEdit

I have used both of these programs and have found them to be very useful.

Elijah

[grahamstewart]

Or Textpad :)

[Elijah]

Or Textpad :)

But jEdit and Edit Pad Lite are free ;)

[pageoneresults]

I doubt you will have much success producing valid code using Frontpage.

Arrrggghhh!

I doubt any of those text editors are going to produce valid code either! :)

[Carey]

So we're back to notepad? :-)

[grahamstewart]

But jEdit and Edit Pad Lite are free

So is Textpad as long as you don't mind the splash screen at the start :)

I doubt any of those text editors are going to produce valid code either!

Ahh.. but that would be due to operator error.. not fundamentally flawed software. :)
I'm sure you can actually force Frontpage to produce valid code, but it will involve much hand editing, tweaking, and fiddling with options, so you might as well start with a text editor.

[g1smd]

I would aim for HTML 4.01 Transitional to begin with.

If you use frames (and I hope you don't) you'll need HTML 4.01 Frameset for the Frameset page.

Ignore HTML 2.0 and HTML 3.2 completely.

Later on, look at XHTML, but I would wait for XHTML 2 to arrive before moving away from HTML 4.01 unless there was a very valid reason to jump into XHTML 1.0 or 1.1 first (and I really don't see one yet).

[Carey]

g1smd - thank you. I do not use frames on my site.