Common Validation Errors

The following errors were "harvested" from the W3C validation report on this page: http://library.csun.edu/ealtman/documentation/accessibility/badpage.html

Line 170, Column 8: element "H2" undefined
<H2>Validation Errors</H2>

Solution: Fix the HTML so that only lower-case letters (e.g. <h2>) are used in the element tags.

Line 171, Column 7: end tag for "br" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified
<br >

Solution: add a slash before the closing bracket (<br/>). This error can occur with <img /> and <meta /> as well.

Line 172, Column 83: value of attribute "align" cannot be "default"; must be one of "top", "middle", "bottom", "left", "right"
…img src="../../images/flowers.jpg" width="392" height="258" align="default" />

Solution: This image problem only arises in pages created in Contribute.

• Dreamweaver fix: Either edit the to remove the align attribute altogether, or change to one of the legal values listed above. You can do this quickly using the Image Properties Panel.
• Contribute fix: To change to one of the a legal values listed above, select the image and right-click it to open the Image Properties.

Line 172, Column 86: required attribute "alt" not specified
…img src="../../images/flowers.jpg" width="392" height="258" align="default" />

Solution: See "Before You Test--Image ALT Text"

Line 183, Column 255: there is no attribute "src"
…bo.com/mm.swf?bBGAAblSeV"/><embed src="http://widget.meebo.com/mm.swf?bBGAAblS…
Line 183, Column 304: there is no attribute "type"
…get.meebo.com/mm.swf?bBGAAblSeV" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1…
Line 183, Column 355: there is no attribute "height"
…type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="190" height="275"></embed></object>
Line 183, Column 360: element "embed" undefined
…type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="190" height="275"></embed></object>

Solution: the Meebo widget code is not XHTML 1.0-kosher. Dreamweaver users can reconfigure it using this handy tool: http://www.kelvinwong.ca/code/php/MeeboMaker/meebo_maker.php
The YouTube embed code can cause similar problems. Dreamweaver users can reconfigure the YouTube embed code by pasting it into this tool: http://www.tools4noobs.com/online_tools/youtube_xhtml/

Line 185, Column 79: general entity "sort" not defined and no default entity
…p://www.merlot.org/artifact/BrowseArtifacts.po?catcode=138&sort=rating">Merlot

Solution: Contribute users, contact the library web master.

Dreamweaver users, you can fix this, but it takes a couple of steps.

1. First, note that nearly every error that involves an "entity" stems from the fact that the W3C validator needs ampersands to be represented as entities (the HTML for non-ASCII characters). These ampersands will most likely make their way into your pages when you use a database search results URL as a link.
2. CLOSE your page in Dreamweaver, and open it in Notepad, or another plain-text editor (not Word).
3. Search for the URL that contains the unexpanded ampersand(s) and change each & that is not already part of an HTML entity to &amp; (the semicolon is necessary). Don't do a global search and replace, or you risk creating monstrosities such as &amp;amp; and &amp;nbsp;.
4. Upload the file through Dreamweaver as usual. You won't need to fix the Dreamweaver preferences again, but every time the validator finds this problem, you will need to perform step #4 in a plain-text editor.

Other Errors

Other errors can appear in your page--

• if the page has broken away from the template (e.g. Error Line 1 column 0: no document type declaration). This can happen if you have edited template manually, or export the page and edit it in another program.
• if you paste in formatted text from an unvalidated page. Contribute users may be able to remedy this by selecting the text, cutting it (Ctrl-x), then copying it back in as text only (Ctrl-Shift-v).
• if (Dreamweaver) you edit the manually and leave out a quotation mark or a >.
• if (Dreamweaver) you paste in and forget to paste in a required closing tag (see the W3C Index of Elements for which elements require closing tags).

If you encounter an error you cannot fix yourself, please seek assistance.