WDG HTML Validator checks to see if you followed all the rules for either 4.0 HTML or 3.2 HTML. 3.2 is the version of code if you just use straight HTML to write your web page. The same code is called version 4.0 when you start using mixed code. Say if you add a counter to your page, or you decide to be more compatible with Unix machines, so you upgrade your font styles to Cascading Style Sheets. If I validate the code written on my computer, the WDG Validator says congratulations no errors have been found on this page. However, if I try to validate this web page here at Smatterings, the banner on top of the page generated quite a few errors. This problem was fixed when I moved to Topcities.
Web Page Purifier lets you check your webpages in different browser formats. You can check if your page is compliant with HTML 2.0, HTML 2.0+Tables, HTML 3.2, or webtv 1.1.
CSE HTML Validator Lite is a freeware program. It will help you out with basic HTML syntax. It is easier to use than the online variety of validators. I have been using a combination of two HTML validators. Evsoft, my HTML editor comes with HTML Tidy pre-installed. Tidy is the downloadable validator not listed on this page because it is not easy to get running. CSE HTML Validator is good on the tags and attributes that Tidy flags as unrecognized. Tidy catches many errors that test as fine in CSE. After some trial and error, it is better to run Tidy first, then run CSE.
However, sometimes I can not find the error Tidy is trying to tell me about. In that case I close the webpage file out of my HTML editor, and validate it with CSE and then re-check it with Tidy.
Caution: Tidy can not handle mouseovers. It tends to screw up onload commands, and some CGI coding found in webrings.
I have gotten into a habit; when running Tidy on pages with webrings or mouseovers. First, I run Tidy. Then I undo the changes by pressing undo in my HTML editor. Then with the Tidy results in front of me, I correct the lines that I can , and re-run Tidy.
