HTML validation help?

[Evoir]

I have a client site that I am trying to validate

(BTW: no coments on design or content, the client made me do it)

And When I go to validate my html (Something new for me) I get some results I don't understand. Can you help me with this?

Validator Results

[Evoir]

For Example, what I don't understand:

Line 10, column 35:

... #0000FF" alink="#0000FF" topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" bgcolo ...
^
Error: there is no attribute "TOPMARGIN" for this element (in this HTML version)

But there IS a TOPMARGIN of "0"

I don't get it.

[PaulKroll]

It's saying that TOPMARGIN isn't valid HTML for the doctype. (I think TOPMARGIN was an IE-ism) In other words, the fact that there >IS< a TOPMARGIN in the tag, is the problem.

[Evoir]

ah...

That could explain a lot of things!

Another related question: same client now wants to print out pages to give to her, um... publicist. The pages do not print out with the hex colors I used for the tables and such. In addition, I put 1 pixel images in the table cell backrounds to make the colors show in a printer.

I
a) had no idea she wanted to be able to print the page
b) had no idea she was going to send this to her publicist.

Anyway, is there a way to get the hex colors I used to show up when you print?

[skolnick]

Hi Evie!

Answer: Except there isn't. Helpful, aren't I?

In the standard there are no topmargin or leftmargin attributes in the body element. Similarly, there is no background attribute for the table element. None of this of course recognizes the practical issues of what various browsers do (non-standard mark-up) and don't (fully compliant CSS) support. It is a standard however, and you shouldn't identify a page as standards-compliant if it isn't.

On the other hand, I am not shy about making intelligent, purposeful decisions to use non-standard mark-up. I use validators to make sure I only do such things on purpose and not by accident.

I deleted the topmargin and leftmargin attributes from the body element, and cleaned up the table definitions (just deleted the background citations) and got

Below are the results of attempting to parse this document with an SGML parser.

No errors found!
Congratulations, this document validates as HTML 4.01 Transitional!

for http://www.skolnick.org/evoir.html. Any "bad" stuff (to reflect non-standard proprietary mark-up supported by IE or Navigator) you can add back in on purpose.

By the way, I found one place where there was a link to "image/somethingorother" instead of "/image/somethingorother". You probably want that initial slash so you don't get bitten someday when you cut and paste. <grin>

[skolnick]

Paul types faster and shorter than I do.

There is a button or check box in both IE (Tools/Internet options/Advanced/Printing/print background images and colors) and Navigator (can't find it) for printing background graphics and colors.

[Evoir]

Dave and Paul. Thank you!

[Evoir]

Originally posted by skolnick:
There is a button or check box in both IE (Tools/Internet options/Advanced/Printing/print background images and colors) and Navigator (can't find it) for printing background graphics and colors.

Weird. I don't have this on my mac.

[Andilinks]

I have found the W3 validator results often cryptic and even internally contradictory at times. There is this: http://www.htmlvalidator.com/ which although pricey is available as an evaluation shareware. I think if I were doing this for a living I'd want to buy it. (as it is I must get all my validation done for my own site before it expires--the standard version is $69. pro is $129, though a lite version is available for free. )

hmmm... just double-checked this and it's not available for the Mac... nevermind. sorry.

Andi

[skolnick]

Originally posted by Evoir:


Weird. I don't have this on my mac.

Hmmm. It's on Windows IE 5.5 (at work) and 6.0 (at home). I don't have a Mac I can spelunk through at home. I'll try to remember to look in the office tomorrow. In the meantime, try looking in anything associated with page or print setup under File.