W3C Validating ERRORS

HTML & CSS
1

I am new to web design, and am taking a class. We had to create a website, and mine is:
http://davidmcclain.freehostia.com/diveshop

I tried to validate my site, but it found 9 errors. Being so new, I have no idea how to correct them. I was only following the directions in the book, and the site is very basic. I am going to try to see what’s up, but the site is working perfectly. Any suggestions?
THanks very much in advance for any help you guys might be able to provide!

David

I am listing the errors below:

Validation Output: 9 Errors
Line 28, Column 20: “of” is not a member of a group specified for any attribute
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
:email:

Line 28, Column 32: “bodycontent” is not a member of a group specified for any attribute
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
:email:

Line 28, Column 36: “div” is not a member of a group specified for any attribute
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
:email:

Line 28, Column 36: “–” is not a member of a group specified for any attribute
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
:email:

Line 28, Column 38: element “end” undefined
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
:email:

You have used the element named above in your document, but the document type you are using does not define an element of that name. This error is often caused by:

incorrect use of the “Strict” document type with a document that uses frames (e.g. you must use the “Frameset” document type to get the “<frameset>” element),
by using vendor proprietary extensions such as “<spacer>” or “<marquee>” (this is usually fixed by using CSS to achieve the desired effect instead).
by using upper-case tags in XHTML (in XHTML attributes and elements must be all lower-case).
Line 29, Column 9: end tag for “end” omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified
</body>
:email:

You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to “self-close” an element, that is, ending it with “/>” instead of “>”.

Line 28, Column 12: start tag was here
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
Line 28, Column 19: Specification mandate value for attribute of
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
:email:

Line 28, Column 19: attributes construct error
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>
:email:

Line 28, Column 19: Couldn’t find end of Start Tag end line 28
</div> <end of bodycontent div –>

2

This is one of those errors that syntax highlighting in your text editor can help you find when eyeballing your page. Even if you can’t see all colours, syntax highlighting can be set to any set of colours, custom colours, and even boldness or italics.

3

Hi David, welcome to SitePoint. Don’t worry, someone’s always around.

Good job with your class using Ian Lloyd’s book. It is a terrific resource. It amazes me how many “how-to” Web design books don’t teach anything close to “best practices” and standards-compliant site construction methods and techniques. Ian’s book is a treasure. I don’t want to “market” SP books, but I can recommend Designing Without Tables as an excellent follow-up and extension to Ian’s book. I found the first edition an invaluable help to learning how to build sites properly. I just got the second edition, and am looking forward to digging into it.

4

<end of bodycontent div –> is not a valid tag

prerhaps you meant <!-- end of bodycontent div –>

5

I am so grateful for that. It worked! I don’t know what I am doing, but I am learning! Thanks very much for your time!!!

Stay close…I might need you again! :slight_smile:

Kind regards…

David

6

What’s happened is…

You’ve added an HTML comment. That means that it is a note for anyone looking at the source code, but doesn’t have any effect on the page itself (and noting which <div> element you are closing is a common use of comments). The syntax is
<!-- comment goes here –>
If you don’t have the !– inside the opening bracket, it will be treated as normal HTML rather than a comment, which is why it was throwing up an error.