In article <50********************@twister.nyroc.rr.com>,
CMAR <cm***@yahoo.com> wrote:
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">
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
