Avoid These Common XHTML Errors
Many visitors to this site have downloaded my XHTML templates and then email me to show me how they are using my work.
Some are less-experienced coders or do not really know how XHTML differs from HTML.
Here are the most common errors I’ve come across:
- Not closing empty elements
- Wrong: <br>
- Right: <br />
- Not closing non-empty elements
- Wrong: <p>This is a paragraph.<p> This is another paragraph.
- Right: <p>This is a paragraph.</p> <p>This is a second paragraph.</p>
- Improperly nesting elements
- Wrong: <em><strong>This is random text.</em></strong>
- Right: <em><strong>This is random text.</strong></em>
- Nesting block-level elements within inline elements
- Wrong: <em> <h2>About Us</h2></em>
- Right: <h2><em>About Us</em></h2>
- No alternate text for images (using the alt attribute, which helps make pages accessible for devices that do not load images or screen-readers for the blind)
- Wrong: <img src="images/logo.jpg" />
- Right: <img src="/images/logo.jpg"
alt="Company Logo" /> - Not putting quotation marks around attribute values
- Wrong: <td colspan=2>
- Right: <td colspan="2">
- Using the ampersand outside of entities (use & to display the ampersand character)
- Wrong: <title>Love & Marriage</title>
- Right: <title>Love & Marriage</title>
- Using uppercase tag names and/or tag attributes
- Wrong: <BODY><P>My Web Site</P></BODY>
- Correct: <body><p>My Web Site</p></body>
By making sure you don’t make the above mistakes, you are well on your way to having an XHTML website that will validate.
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August 17th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Good post. You should submit it as an article to attackr.com
August 18th, 2006 at 12:07 am
thanks, Sean, I will