What's up is that Microsoft and Netscape have slightly different ideas of how Web pages should be coded, so Netscape's Navigator can't perfectly translate a page written for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and vice versa. Are you surprised?
There are three ways you can cut through the babble.
? Optimise your pages for viewing with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and say "To hell with the rest of the world."
? Use Netscape Navigator extensions to HTML 2.0 to make your pages sparkle when viewed with Navigator, and delete all messages of complaint from people who use other browsers. You can find these extensions on the Netscape Extension to HTML 2.0 page (http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions.html).
? Code your pages with the least common denominator, the bare-bones HTML 2.0 standard, so that your site looks the same in most browsers.
We have a running debate in our household over this. "My Web pages are HTML 2.0 compliant," my husband, the purist, likes to sniff. "Yeah, but you can't wrap text around graphics in stylish fashion the way I can," I counter, defending my Navigator extensions.
One thing we do agree on is that Web page validators are a great way to find out which lines of code in your Web pages are most likely to make things look screwy to some of your audience.
Head to the WebTechs HTML Validation Service page (http://www.webtechs.com/html-val-svc/) and type your Web page's URL into the page's form. WebTechs will head to your page, take a look at its source code, and tell you which lines don't comply with the HTML 2.0 standard -- or which lines simply aren't well written and are likely to cause trouble for certain browsers.
The WebTechs page also gives you an icon that you can download and add to any page that passes the validation test. Whenever you update the page, just click the icon and WebTechs will tell you if the page is HTML 2.0-compliant.
A Kinder, Gentler Validator (http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~gerald/validate/) is another good stop on the Web. It's similar to the WebTechs validator except that its error messages are easier to understand. For background, you should also read what's on the Why Validate Your HTML page (http://www.earth.com/bad-style/why-validate.html).
These Web page validators won't turn up every error or violation of HTML 2.0 on your pages. For true Webophiles, parsing programs, which check the syntax of your HTML commands, offer a more comprehensive solution. But validators are sufficient for the weekend Web coder. And using them is better than waiting for all the complaints about your odd-looking page to roll in. If you're a business on the Web, it's embarrassing when your page doesn't come up correctly in different browsers.
- Judy Heim