Web site handbook > Validation
Validation
Validating documents locates XHTML syntax errors.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTML validators
XHTML validator
Use the W3C XHTML validator to check XHTML documents. Select:
- Show outline
CSS validator
Use the W3C CSS validator to check XHTML documents.
Evaluate and fix errors
Do not be alarmed if the number of errors is high. Errors are often caused because of a preceeding an unclosed tag. Closing open tags will "clean up" subsequent "document type does not allow element X here" errors.
Read the errors and look for patterns. For example, you may notice several anchor <a> elements are not closed. This should be easily fixed using a Dreamweaver's find and replace feature.
Common errors
- Unclosed tags
- End tag for element X which is not open
- Document type does not allow element X here
Document outline
The XHTML validator generated an outline for the document, automatically generated from the heading tags (<h1> through <h6>.) If the page outline does not accurately represent the content hierarchy, replace the heading tags accordingly.