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xhtml
xhtml version 1.0 combines html with xml. This
will eventually help enable the standards required for creating
web pages that work on a variety of platforms, from the usual
browsers to mobile phones.
xhtml improves html by using the rigidity of an xml application.
The result is cleaner mark up, which is both easier for you
to maintain and quicker for the browser to process. xhtml
uses the same tags as html, and is viewable by current browsers.
xhtml is the next stage in the development of the Internet.
By changing to xhtml , you can enter the xml world, while
maintaining backward and future compatibility.
There are a few guidelines to follow to change your existing
html documents to xhtml.
change your existing html documents to xhtml
- Documents must be well formed (i.e.
correct)
- All opening tags must have a closing
tag
- All tags must be written in lower
case
- Tags that don't have a closing
tag in html must have a closing forward slash
- All attribute values must be quoted
documents must be well formed (i.e.
correct)
- It must validate against one of the three DTDs
- The root of the document must be <html>
- The root of the document must state the xhtml namespace:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xml:lang="en" Lang="en">
- There must be a DOCTYPE declaration in the document prior
to the root element. The public identifier included in the
DOCTYPE declaration must reference one of the three DTDs:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD
XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD
XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD
XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN" "DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd">
- Tags must nest correctly and not overlap.
<p>normal text <i>italicized
text</i> normal text</p>
not:
<p>normal text <i>italicized text</p></i>
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all opening tags must have a closing
tag
<p>text goes here</p>
<p>text goes here</p>
not:
<p>text goes here
<p>text goes here
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all tags and attribute names must
be written in lower case
<h1>text goes here</h1>
<form>...</form>
not:
<H1>text goes here</H1>
<FORM>...</FORM>
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tags that don't have a closing
tag in html must have a closing forward slash
<img src="/graphics/image.gif"
/>
<br />
not:
<img src="/graphics/image.gif">
<Br>
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all attribute values must be quoted
<table width="100%" border="0"
cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
not:
<table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=0
cellpadding=0>
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example of an xhtml document
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xml:Lang="en" Lang="en">
<head>
<title>xhtml web page</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Text to go here</p>
</body>
</html>
css and xhtml documents
- Follow the cascading style sheets level 2 recommendations
- css style sheets for xhtml should use lower case element
and attribute names
dreamweaver and xhtml
Currently, Dreamweaver 4 does not allow easy editing of xhtml
documents. However, this article from A List Apart explains
how you can configure Dreamweaver to create valid xhtml documents.
It also links to the Macromedia Dreamweaver exchange where
you can download an extension to manage xhtml within Dreamweaver.
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/dreamweaver/
further information
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