Validation of Code

[AndrewM]

I am new to web design and have now built a few sites in Publisher. I am
told that I should validate the code using http://validator.w3.org/ but am
having difficulty doing so. Among other things, Publisher files don't seem
to have a doctype tag at the top. Which doctype tag should I enter? And is
there anything else I need to do in order to validate? I'm doing this in the
hope that it will help with the cross browser compatibility issue (having
already follwed the other suggestions in this discussion group).
One of my sites is: www.polarisproperty.co.uk
With many thanks,
Andrew

 

[DavidF]

Andrew,

Although David Bartosik could give you a better answer, I wouldn't waste too
much time with this. The code that Publisher 2003 generates is designed to
work best with IE, and only sometimes works with other browsers...its just
the nature of the beast I'm afraid. Trying to tweak the code isn't likely to
help. If you want true cross browser support, then switch to FrontPage or
some other more appropriate application. With a little luck, maybe the next
version will work better.

DavidF

 

[David Bartosik]

It's been my experence that only newbies tell other newbies to validate code.
Fwiw in all my years in web development I've never used a validator, nor do
any of my peers. As for cross browser support you achieve that by knowledge
and experience and by actual testing in all browsers. Publisher web pages
will not validate well. But then Publisher isn't suited for cross browser
support so validating for that purpose is a moot point.