CSE HTMLValidator Pro is the HTML validator I use to check my *.html
web pages for syntax errors. It also checks *.css
style sheets. It is produced by A
I Internet Solutions aka htmlvalidator.com.
Albert Wiersh of A.I. has been extremely helpful over the years whenever I had a
problem or suggestions for new features.
Why Validate?
Why bother with validation if you are not obsessive-compulsive? Because when you
clear up all the picky syntax errors, your website will work with any browser
trouble free. Otherwise it will work only with the browser or browsers you
explicitly tested it with. Further it could stop working with the next release
of a browser. Browsers are buggy enough without loading them down with malformed
HTML.
HTMLValidator is extremely configurable. You can get it to ignore picky errors
for now, then when you have the big problems with your site cleaned up, turn
them back on. You can also make it super picky, so that your HTML is easier to
process with programs, or to gradually migrate your site to XHTML.
Learning What CSE HTML Validator Can Do
There are five ways you can learn what it does, listed here in increasing order
of commitment.
| HTML Validator Options |
cost
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click |
notes |
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Validate On-line |
Try validating some of your web pages on-line. This is done with free lite
version. You don’t have to download anything, but the web page you
validate must be posted on web. |
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Download
Lite |
Download the free lite version, and use it for as long as you like. It won’t
expire. You normally use it to validate HTML on your hard disk before you upload
your pages to your website. though you can also use it to validate web pages
pages, (even other people’s) already posted on the web. |
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Read the FAQ. |
Read the HTMLValidator FAQ. You will discover the extreme configurability.
You can control the degree of pickiness so you don’t have to fix
everything at once, just set the filters fine enough to get the worst problems
cleaned before you move on to the pickier stuff. |
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Download Standard Trial |
Download the trial standard version. It will work for 30 days to let you
evaluate. You might choose this first over the pro edition just you would not be
overwhelmed with features to start. |
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Download Pro Trial |
Download the trial pro version. It will work for 30 days to let you evaluate.
It is fully functional. The worst that can happen is you have 30 days to clean
up your website. When the trial expires, your website will still be clean. |
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Buy Standard |
Buy the standard version. It would be suitable if you had under 1000 files
to keep validated. It does not have any hard limits. |
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Buy
Pro |
Buy the pro version. I use the pro version because comes with the batch
wizard. It would take forever to validate my whole website file by file. |
I thought you would like to see the prices on this webpage in ,
but you can change that instantly, thanks to the Canadian Mind Products CurrCon
Applet that you too could use on your own website to display prices in any world
currency using today’s exchange rates.
HTMLValidator comes in three versions. See this comparison
chart to help you decide which version you need.
Configuring
You have very fine control over what the validator is picky about. You can
configure it to ignore certain classes of error or certain blocks of HTML with <cseignore>…
</cseignore> tags. I very much like this feature. It lets me bring
my HTML gradually into conformance. I ask it not to bug me about picky stuff
like missing </p> and I used early on to ask
it not to pester me about using <ul>… </ul>
for indenting. Now I do ask it to be picky.
Here’s how I configured it to demand balancing </li>
tags.
- Click Options ⇒ Configuration Editor ⇒ Edit ⇒
Tag Names.
- On the top right, Select li (020) with the drop down
box on the right (not the box on the left) as the “Tag Name Being
Configured”
- On the right, select the “Required end tag”
radio button.
- You’ll probably want to repeat this for all li
tags whose context is distinguished with a number.
- Save the configuration file to a different filename
to make sure it doesn’t get overwritten if the CSE HTML Validator is
reinstalled or updated.
The most important parameter to configure in the batch processor is Tools
⇒ Batch Wizard ⇒ Options ⇒ Batch Wizard Options ⇒ General ⇒
Miscellaneous ⇒ max targets which controls the maximum number of
files that will be processed in a batch.
Other files in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.userid\Application Data\AI Internet Solutions\CSE HTML Validator\8.0\
or in Vista:
C:\Users\roedy\AppData\Roaming\AI Internet Solutions\CSE HTML Validator\8.0\,
you can configure include:
- cssinsertercfg.txt
- htmlvalV80.cfg: I suggest putting this file in some
permanent data directory so it will be backed up and won’t get lost on
reinstall.
- javascriptinsertercfg.txt
- msgidcfg.xml
- phpinsertercfg.txt
- taginsertercfg.txt
- tidyprofiles.xml
- userinsertercfg.txt
Make sure you periodically clean out:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.userid\Application Data\AI Internet Solutions\CSE HTML Validator\8.0\batchreport*.html
or in Vista:
C:\Users\roedy\AppData\Roaming\AI Internet Solutions\CSE HTML Validator\8.0\batchreport*.html
& and &
By default, one thing the validator will complain about is &s
in your CGI URLs; it wants you to spell them out as &.
The CGI server will still see them as plain &
since your browser converts them back to plain &.
I wrote a utility to do correct this error for you automatically called Amper.
Validate your Webpages Free
Check your document online with CSE
HTML Validator Lite.
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