* Validated HTML documents will become a key aspect of Web life to ensure document portability. To ensure your company information renders consistently using both old browsers, as well as the ability to use new browsers as they emerge, it is imperative to maintain strict compliance to the HTML 2.0 specifications.
* It is a foregone conclusion that as new browsers enter the marketplace they will not all parse and render non-confermening documents exactly the same. When this occurs, the users will immediately suspect the document author or webmaster.
* Simply checking your document through a validation tool is not enough to guarantee that it is well designed (similarly, just because a program compiles doesn't mean that it's bug free). A well authored document should be still be tested on no less than 3 platforms encompassing no less than 3 different browsers of which, in each case, one must be a text-only browser.
* One of the major failings of many documents presently on the Web is they try to use HTML to do page layout. Page layout is not what HTML was developed to perform. Page layout is a mode of print publishing which is in sharp contrast to On-Line publishing.
e.g.:
Consider the case of using headers (<H1>, etc.) just to get a larger font. If your document was indexed by an automated page indexer (robot or spider) which builds Tables of Contents (TOC) from the header elements, the TOC would be cluttered with out of context words and be completely incoherent. By obeying the letter and spirit of HTML specifications, your information will get the maximum benefit from new tools.
This document was produced using HTML Transit