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My Little Green Mark
Authored by Cynthia Jones

In my Firefox browser I look at the lower right hand corner to see the green circle with a white check inside. This little mark tells me that the page I am viewing is validated HTML with no errors and no warnings. If a page is not validated with fixable errors, a yellow warning sign shows. If the page has HTML errors that tidy can not fix, a red circle with a white x shows, something similiar to our browser's stop button.

This tidy tool is an extension that you download and install into Mozilla Firefox. It is very easy to install, easy to understand and easy to use. The HTML is not being sent to any third paties. The HTML is validated locally on your machine.

How to Install? Go to HTML VALIDATOR (based on Tidy and OpenSP) click on beta of HTML Validator 0.831 and you will be taken to the download page. Select the version of your choice and click the link to begin download. A small window pops up and you will need to click on Install Now. When the installion starts another small window will pop up with a list of your Extensions. You will see the downloading and when finished a message beside the HTML Validator that reads 'HTML Validator will be installed when Firefox is restarted. Now close all pop ups and Firefox. When you open Firefox again a new pop up menu will appear introducing you to HTML Validator and asking you to pick the version you want. This is up to you. I personally use HTML Tidy and is what I select from this pop up. After you make your selection you will be taken to a new page that gives complete details about HTML Validator and I suggest you book mark this page for future reference. Now you should see the HTML Tidy tool in the lower right hand corner of your Firefox browser.

How to Uninstall? In Firefox browser go to Tools and then select Extensions. You should see a small pop up window that lists all of the Extensions you have Installed. Find HTML Validator and click it to highlight it. Now click Uninstall. When the process is complete you will need to close Firefox. When you open Firefox again, the Extension will be removed.

Adding that this neat little tidy tool is not fool proof, you will not get a 100% accurate HTML with the cleaning tool. However, if you are not a HTML guru, the tool will set you in the right direction to cleaning your page and you will be much closer to making it validated.

If your page is really off the mark and you choose to clean it with the tidy tool, you will get HTML code that is cleaned. Your first thought will be to copy and paste that entire code into your page and all will be finished. Not so. You will need to put your DOCUMENT Type back in and most likely loose all of your proper closing tags. (ex. this is correct /> and will be over written by this > which is incorrect) This will also happen to html breaks. Some things we do not see at first glance and it feels impossible to find the mistakes. Practice does make perfect and even if it seems difficult in the beginning, the more use brings more ease. Plus, in the HTML Tidy while looking at the source, you can click on the error or warning and it will page to that mistake within your html and highlight it.

I still recommend validating your HTML with W3C and insert a link so your visitors can verify. I have found the yellow warning sign may show up but my page may still be W3C validated. It is those kinds of warnings, not actual errors, that I would surely miss if I was not using Firefox. I do still use I.E. and it is thrilling to see a page look the same in both browsers.

There is mention of this tidy tool and the use of Firefox in my scoring for a couple of reasons. One, it makes it easy for me to see very quickly if a page is validated and is a large portion of why I use Firefox. Another reason is to encourage others to take a second look at their coding which is exactly what Firefox may insist on us. While Internet Explorer is more forgiving and a page can look ok when being viewed, the coding will not always need to be written correctly.

Why is this so important? You may say to yourself that if a page looks ok then why worry if it is written correctly. To answer the question simply, if your page is viewable in mulitiple browsers, your page is accessable to all users and your page will get viewed by more people. Not everyone uses the same internet tools and as a web designer it is your responsiblity to consider that fact.

On another note, if your page is not written correctly, your page can cause your visitor problems. Download time can be slowed or halted. Their computer can freeze leaving them no choice but to hard boot. Their browser can simply give up trying to read the page and crash. Of course if these things happen and you have applied for an award, the evaluator is going to disqualify you and your site. Not to mention, it is going to be very difficult for you to keep visitors returning and suppling a flow of traffic to your site. Depending on what your reasons are for developing a site in the first place, these mistakes could cost you big in the end.

The tidy tool is absolutely free and I highly recommend trying it out. If you do not use Firefox, now is a great time to download it and begin using it. It costs you nothing except a little bit of your time and space on your computer. You can just use this browser as an alternative, but use it. There are differences between Mozilla and Internet Explorer. However, I am finding more every day that there are very few differences IF the page is written correctly.

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Labels: article, firefox