Well, still a noob for sure, but I've started some work on cleaning up my website. Even with some new tools, I'm rather limited by my current knowledge on how to apply them correctly without screwing things up.
Using HTML validator and cleaning up a page...........I'd like to copy and paste the cleaned version into the page files and delete the crappy version. Thing is, I don't know what to use for indenting the elements and even if it's necessary or would be done automatically when I copy the correct code to the files. How important is the element indention spacing and how important is the length for string of characters, and is there some tutorial that could help me out with this? I usually back things up before I change them, but if I screw something up, even then it might take me the better part of a day fixing it back. I'm sure someone here is going to make it sound so simple. Thanks in advance.

Do not worry if you are there only 3 - 4 errors. It's a computer, he can not think.
Lets compare. Vozmem same Microsoft Office word, and its system of spelling. He does not know some words, but it's not scary. I've seen sites created by professionals, and they also have a few bugs. I think that this is permissible.
Sorry for the mistakes, I started learning English six months ago

How important is the element indention spacing and how important is the length for string of characters,

It isn't!
Source code indentation just helps to make the code readable.

You could remove all the "white space" between elements, all the tabs, all the line breaks in the source code and it would not make any difference at all.

HTML will only render a single space in text strings. So

<span>This           is            some          text</span>

and

<span>
This is some text
</span>

will render exactly the same on the page.
"This is some text"

Maybe have a look at HTML-Tidy for cleaning up the code.

Thanks for the replies. I somewhat understand. HTML-tidy...................I've started getting into that actually. Thing is, I didn't want to mess things up by copying and pasting code aligned to the left margin since I always see my html files or any page on the internet with indexing.

Source code indentation just helps to make the code readable.

So without indentation, the page (code) would be more difficult to render? Make a difference in page load times or bandwidth on my server?
I told you I was a noob. And I appreciate all the help I can get.

indentation doesnt affect load times or anything like that at all

if you look at the source of some sites you can see it as one paragraph and just a huge block and when you try to read this source you'll get lost very quickly

the reason people indent/space code is because it becomes easier to read and therefore edit in the future instead of sorting through a huge mountain of text

the computer will interpret the code regardless of indentation - unless specified in a language your using

Okay, so indentation will just make it easier on me in the long run when I want to go and edit my page's html. I think need to make it easier for myself to read through. Highlighting the tags will also help me there. I'll sort it all out from here then.......thanks!

Personally I do not recommend HTML-Tidy!

I just tested with the source of the board and it just deletes the <!DOCTYPE...> line.

That is not good, the code will be messed up.

HTML Validator is a must-have tool/bookmark for me.
If it's the Firefox Addon or the online validator at http://validator.w3.org

Michael

Originally Posted by Ram Rod

Okay, so indentation will just make it easier on me in the long run when I want to go and edit my page's html. I think need to make it easier for myself to read through. Highlighting the tags will also help me there. I'll sort it all out from here then.......thanks!

pretty much, if you want to go back and edit your site you'll want to be able to read the code, so it is easier to do it now rather than deal with a bunch of problems later on

also while creating your initial site you'll want indentation and spacing for readability, although it is not required i would definitely recommend it.

I'm using http://validator.w3.org to validate of course a site. We're using it for site recommendation when we do SEO. The site must meet SEO requirement for better result.

Originally Posted by CSM

Personally I do not recommend HTML-Tidy!

I just tested with the source of the board and it just deletes the <!DOCTYPE...> line.

Michael

CSM/Michael, I also tried HTML-Tidy a while back, and more often than not, it would screw up javascript in the file... but removing the doctype... that's outrageously ironic.

RR, for code clean-up you might want to try HTML Kit, Polystyle, or download free NetBeans... in NB, you can set your formatting prefs then automatically format code with a keystroke combo [Shift-Alt-F]. Very sweet.

Good luck.

Depending on what type of HTML development software you're using, it might be possible to do it via the GUI (vs. hand-coding). What development software are you using? (If notepad, then you'll be stuck hand-coding the fixes :-)

I used Expression Web (the latest 4.0) and it has an inbuilt validator. I am new to this area so I may be wrong but while designing it prompted me many things like breaking this rule and that rule but I found it helpful. One more thing I would like to mention is I have also used a Firefox extension called HTML Validator.

http://validator.w3.org to validate of course a site,
I validate my website :- http://www.paullimo.com

Originally Posted by chrishirst

...
Maybe have a look at HTML-Tidy for cleaning up the code.

Thanks. I'd never heard of that before. Will try it soon.

Validations are needed to make sure that your page is displayed well across the browsers... It not only makes you feel that you are following the standards but it will be appreciated by the people using your website especially if the website is used on multiple browsers.

Originally Posted by gotlivechat

What development software are you using? (If notepad, then you'll be stuck hand-coding the fixes :-)

Notepad++ for me with tag detection and SVN plugins. I love hand coding everything.