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View Full Version : Do I Need a 'document type' on my site?

MarkPearson
4th January 2006, 09:15
I have just been informed that my site www.rosesbydesign.com does not have a 'document type'

Now not being very techie, I am unsure of this and if it should be.

Or what it even is?

Can someone help and let me know?
mattk
4th January 2006, 09:23
It's something that goes at the top of your page, above the html tag and looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

You can validate your page here:

http://validator.w3.org/

But be warned, once you start validating your pages it's like joining a cult. You won't sleep until all your pages validate and it's likely to drive you slightly mad!
creospace
4th January 2006, 09:28
LOL thats so true, as I once again rub my bags under my eyes and reach for the coffee :)
MarkPearson
4th January 2006, 09:33
Would anyone be able to help me with this?

My site uses one standard header for the whole site, so this will be easy?
mattk
4th January 2006, 09:43
For your site, which is HTML 4, I'd use this DOCTYPE:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

Depending on how your site is structured you should be able to add it at the very top of each page using your standard header.
MarkPearson
4th January 2006, 09:47
thanks guys

Creospace just helped me add this info :-)
mattk
4th January 2006, 09:51
That's the badboy!