The proper DocType statement to use

#1 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

I create my website using Front Page 2000. I notice that none of my pages
have a DocType statement at the top.

I have read that if you want IE6 to use "Standards mode" rather than the
"Quirks mode," which IE uses if there is no DocType, then you have to put
the proper DocType statement at the top of every page. What is the
recommended DocType statement I should use if I am aiming at IE6?

Thanks, CMA

#2 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

http://www.alistapart.com/stories/doctype/

CJM

"CMAR" <cma6j@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:SuRTa.176591$8B.61979@twister.nyroc.rr.com...[color=blue]
> I create my website using Front Page 2000. I notice that none of my pages
> have a DocType statement at the top.
>
> I have read that if you want IE6 to use "Standards mode" rather than the
> "Quirks mode," which IE uses if there is no DocType, then you have to put
> the proper DocType statement at the top of every page. What is the
> recommended DocType statement I should use if I am aiming at IE6?
>
> Thanks, CMA
>
>[/color]

#3 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

"CMAR" cma6j@yahoo.com wrote:
<snip> What is the[color=blue]
>recommended DocType statement I should use if I am aiming at IE6?[/color]

Visit:
http://www.hut.fi/u/hsivonen/doctype.html

James Pickering
http://www.jp29.org/

#4 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

Thanks to both CJM and Jamesicus for useful posts. The recommendation seems
to be to use the following:
HTML 4.01 Strict, Transitional, Frameset
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">

I can figure out that I use the third one for me frameset pages, but which
of the first two do I use for all my other pages? (Remember, I authored with
FP2000).

Thanks, CMA

"CJM" <cjmwork@m.co.uk> wrote in message news:3f1fec34@shknews01...[color=blue]
> http://www.alistapart.com/stories/doctype/
>
>
> CJM
>
> "CMAR" <cma6j@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:SuRTa.176591$8B.61979@twister.nyroc.rr.com...[color=green]
> > I create my website using Front Page 2000. I notice that none of my[/color][/color]
pages[color=blue][color=green]
> > have a DocType statement at the top.
> >
> > I have read that if you want IE6 to use "Standards mode" rather than[/color][/color]
the[color=blue][color=green]
> > "Quirks mode," which IE uses if there is no DocType, then you have to[/color][/color]
put[color=blue][color=green]
> > the proper DocType statement at the top of every page. What is the
> > recommended DocType statement I should use if I am aiming at IE6?
> >
> > Thanks, CMA
> >
> >[/color]
>
>[/color]

#5 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

CMAR wrote:[color=blue]
> I can figure out that I use the third one for me frameset pages, but which
> of the first two do I use for all my other pages? (Remember, I authored with
> FP2000).[/color]

With Microsoft products it is always safer to use the loose DTD, since
their code might not be so 'strict'...

--
Jeroen Sangers \/
/\ Be Alert...
http://www.jeroensangers.com \/
http://www.fimcap.org /\ The world needs more Lerts!

#6 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

CMAR wrote:
[color=blue]
> I create my website using Front Page 2000. I notice that none of my pages
> have a DocType statement at the top.
>
> I have read that if you want IE6 to use "Standards mode" rather than the
> "Quirks mode," which IE uses if there is no DocType, then you have to put
> the proper DocType statement at the top of every page. What is the
> recommended DocType statement I should use if I am aiming at IE6?[/color]

The DOCTYPE specifies to which "version" of HTML your code is compliant.
As you are using FP, none of your pages is likely to comply to any
version of HTML specification.

So the second-best thing to do is not to specify a DOCTYPE, as to do so
would be to claim something about your code that is not true.

The best thing to do is to tidy up or re-write your code so that it
complies with, say, HTML-4.01 Strict, and *then* add the appropriate
DOCTYPE to it, to reflect the quality of code.

http://www.tranchant.freeserve.co.uk...alidation.html

--
Mark.
http://www.tranchant.freeserve.co.uk/

#7 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

> I create my website using Front Page 2000. I notice that none of my[color=blue]
> pages have a DocType statement at the top.
>
> I have read that if you want IE6 to use "Standards mode" rather than
> the "Quirks mode," which IE uses if there is no DocType, then you
> have to put the proper DocType statement at the top of every page.
> What is the recommended DocType statement I should use if I am aiming
> at IE6?
>
> Thanks, CMA[/color]

Clean up your code to a valid version of HTML, a list of valid DTDs is given
on the page referenced below
http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/valid-dtd-list.html

I would suggest HTML 4.01 Strict for new documents, HTML 4.01 Transitional
for legacy documents (unless you can get them to strict quite easily).

--
BenM
http://www.benmeadowcroft.com/

#8 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

In article <50TTa.176712$8B.155855@twister.nyroc.rr.com>,
CMAR <cma6j@yahoo.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>A good suggestion: I should use this one then:
>
><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
> "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">[/color]

Yes, but FrontPage-generated markup is highly unlikely to actually be
consistent with that document type so you should check the result with
the W3C Markup Validator[0] (or an equivalent Validating service[1])
and manually fix the detected errors.

If the errors cannot be fixed -- e.g. because FP just immediately
messes it up again and you can't switch to a better authoring tool --
you should leave out the DOCTYPE Declaration alltogether. If all you're
after is generating legacy/tagsoup pages then a DOCTYPE declaration is
not necessary and should be omitted to give browsers a sporting chance
to distinguish it from well-written/standard pages.

BTW, the "Transitional" document type is intended for legacy documents.
Your ultimate goal should be the "Strict" document type, even if you
can't (easily) make it there quite yet. Switching to Strict and running
it through a Validator -- and correcting any errors that you can -- is
a good idea to get rid of as much of the legacy gunk as possible.

[0] - W3C Markup Validator: <http://validator.w3.org/>

[1] - Such as Nick Kew's excellent Site Valet
<http://valet.webthing.com/>
or the WDG's HTML Validator
<http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/>.

Be weary of "HTML Checkers" that do not specify what kind of
backend they use; you want one that uses an "SGML Parser" to
be sure you have Valid HTML before you use more superficial
services such as "checkers" or "lints".

PS. You may want to take look at
<http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote2.html> at some point.

--
T.E.R.J.E. - Technician Engineered for Repair and Justified Exploration
B.L.E.S.S. - Biomechanical Lifeform Engineered for Scientific Sabotage

#9 July 20th, 2005, 04:19 PM

"CMAR" <cma6j@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:SuRTa.176591$8B.61979@twister.nyroc.rr.com...[color=blue]
> I create my website using Front Page 2000. I notice that none of my pages
> have a DocType statement at the top.
>
> I have read that if you want IE6 to use "Standards mode" rather than the
> "Quirks mode," which IE uses if there is no DocType, then you have to put
> the proper DocType statement at the top of every page. What is the
> recommended DocType statement I should use if I am aiming at IE6?[/color]

See http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/res_doctype.htm

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