Adding a doctype to your
webpage
Doctype is a special declaration at the very top of your webpage source,
right above the <HTML> tag, that informs
validators the rules in which to validate your page using, and for modern
browsers (IE6+, Firefox, NS6+, Opera, IE5 Mac), whether to display your page in
Quirks or Standards mode.
Below lists the major doctypes you can deploy on your webpage. All of them
enters modern browsers into "Standards" mode when used.
 HTML 4.01 Transitional, Strict, Frameset
HTML 4.01 transitional doctype supports all attributes of HTML 4.01,
presentational attributes, deprecated elements, and link targets. It is meant to
be used for webpages that are transitioning to HTML 4.01 strict:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
HTML 4.01 Strict is a trimmed down version of HTML 4.01 with emphasis
on structure over presentation. Deprecated elements and attributes (including
most presentational attributes), frames, and link targets are not allowed. CSS
should be used to style all elements:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
HTML 4.01 frameset is identical to Transitional above, except for the
use of <frameset> over <body>:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
XHTML 1.0 Transitional, Strict, Frameset
Use XHTML 1.0 Transitional when your webpage conforms to basic XHTML
rules, but still uses some HTML presentational tags for the sake of viewers that
don't support CSS:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
Use XHTML 1.0 Strict when your webpage conforms to XHTML rules and
uses CSS for full separation between content and presentation:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
XHTML 1.0 frameset is identical to Transitional above, except in the
use of the <frameset> tag over <body>:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd">
XHTML 1.1 DTD
XHTML 1.1 declaration. Visit the WC3 site for an
overview
and
what's changed
from 1.0:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
Useful Links
|
