Is it required to use " in html or a best practice, or not necessary? I have not been able to find a reference that answers the question.

its a best practice.. Not always necessary

Any idea when it would be necessary?

If it is to be visible text use the HTML entity ", if it is in the source code use "

I use " only in javascript when do smth with innerHTML
Only because it doesn't work with real quotes.

it's not necessary.

It's always best to escape certain characters: á should be á and ö should be ö & should be & etc, for maximum compatibility. Smart quotes, like you get in Word, for example, often cause problems when appearing on a Mac. Always best to make sure you're not using them, but using the standard "" instead, or using the escaped version.

There's a complete list of them here:

http://www.theukwebdesigncompany.com...characters.php

Originally Posted by edgray

It's always best to escape certain characters: á should be á and ö should be ö & should be & etc, for maximum compatibility. Smart quotes, like you get in Word, for example, often cause problems when appearing on a Mac. Always best to make sure you're not using them, but using the standard "" instead, or using the escaped version.

There's a complete list of them here:

http://www.theukwebdesigncompany.com...characters.php

This is a great resource thanks for providing this. Also I have seen a lot of CMS's offer editors that will do all of the escaping and codes for you so check the documentation if you use CMS's to see if you can just continue to type normally while the editor handles the cruft.

Originally Posted by captkrackerjack

This is a great resource thanks for providing this. Also I have seen a lot of CMS's offer editors that will do all of the escaping and codes for you so check the documentation if you use CMS's to see if you can just continue to type normally while the editor handles the cruft.

yes it's very handy. It's a shame Wordpress doesn't seem to automatically escape characters for you...

Originally Posted by edgray

yes it's very handy. It's a shame Wordpress doesn't seem to automatically escape characters for you...

Any of the Markdown or Textile editor plugins should offer some degree of encoding, at least for quotes, but as far as advanced encoding with characters they do not. That would be something to think about for a plugin. I will look deeper into this.

I'll go against the grain and say that it's not a best practice to use entities (that is, the funky " things).

For starters, there's no browser-specific reason to use them--a browser doesn't need an entity to know that a " is a ". Perhaps some crazy text only browser made in 1988 might get confused by an uncommon character, but it's just as likely to get confused by an entity.

The only other reason to use them is if your text editor doesn't allow you to type a character directly. If this is the case, you'd probably be best off trying to get a better editor. (And if for some reason you're stuck with your editor, then I guess the decision is made for you.)

Also, see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4...-html-entities

Originally Posted by Crimson

I'll go against the grain and say that it's not a best practice to use entities (that is, the funky " things).

For starters, there's no browser-specific reason to use them--a browser doesn't need an entity to know that a " is a ". Perhaps some crazy text only browser made in 1988 might get confused by an uncommon character, but it's just as likely to get confused by an entity.

The only other reason to use them is if your text editor doesn't allow you to type a character directly. If this is the case, you'd probably be best off trying to get a better editor. (And if for some reason you're stuck with your editor, then I guess the decision is made for you.)

Also, see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4...-html-entities

try living in a country filled with "á é ñ ¡ & ¡". If you don't escape them there's no guarantee your page will look right. I find this comes up especially when being sent copy that's been typed in word and you've got to put it into HTML.