More Basic Questions.

Let me start by thanking everyone that gave me advice a few weeks ago. My
next question about my site at www.richardmackenzie.co.uk is do I need to
insert a doctype? I am not actually sure what this is but have been told
that is something that I need.

Best,

Richard MacKenzie

Once upon a time, far far away, the king summoned "Richard"
<mail@richardmackenzie.co.uk> who replied:

>Let me start by thanking everyone that gave me advice a few weeks ago. My
>next question about my site at www.richardmackenzie.co.uk is do I need to
>insert a doctype? I am not actually sure what this is but have been told
>that is something that I need.

Popcorn anyone?

<g>

Matt

--
Free, high quality content for web sites. See
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/xcont.htm

Richard mail@richardmackenzie.co.uk wrote:
> Let me start by thanking everyone that gave me advice a few weeks ago. My
> next question about my site at www.richardmackenzie.co.uk is do I need to
> insert a doctype? I am not actually sure what this is but have been told
> that is something that I need.
>

A doctype declaration is a line in the head of the page that tells a
browser what type of document it is so that the browser knows how to
render it properly. You already have a doctype. It's whatever you used to
create the page. It might be xhtml, xml, html 3.2, html 4.0 strict, etc
etc. If you don't know what you have used then it's probably safest to
call it html 4 transitional.

Ideally you should decide what you are creating the page in before you
start. I generally work in html 4 strict as a default.

There's no real problem with not declaring a doctype. Some browsers may
render pages a little oddly, and you won't be able to use a validator to
save time finding errors, but the chances are the site will work well
enough to suffice on an amateur basis.

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"