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oli99via
December 13th, 2007, 03:22 PM
I read about building accessible websites. It seems to me that HTML 4.0 is the preferred standard. However, I am not sure whether my pages are built in HTML 4.0. I use Dreamweaver CS3 to build all my websites. And the dotype above the <head> doesn't say HTML 4.0 (see below). Am I conform or not?

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="EN">

Does anyone have an answer? I am confused with the following too:
HTML 4.0 Strict
HTML 4.0 Transitional

The default is Transitional in Dreamweaver. When do you change it to Strict?
simplistik
December 13th, 2007, 03:28 PM
html 4.0 is? xhtml transitional is what you should be coding in AT LEAST. Strict just means you need to code better ;), usually requires "cleaner" code.
oli99via
December 13th, 2007, 04:14 PM
Okay, I understand Strict now. :) But do you mean HTML 4.0 = XHTML Transitional? Are they equal (the same thing) or XHTML Transitional is part of HTML 4.0?
simplistik
December 13th, 2007, 05:39 PM
No... XHTML is the "evolved" version of HTML, so HTML is a part of XHTML but XHTML is not a part of HTML ;). XHTML and HTML are not the same thing. So when I say XHTML Transitional, I mean XHTML Transitional. For more info http://www.webstandards.org/learn/articles/askw3c/oct2003/
denizengt
December 13th, 2007, 06:45 PM
Train yourself on Strict mate. Agencies I work for won't accept anything less
oli99via
December 13th, 2007, 07:03 PM
Got it. Thank you simplistik.

What?! "won't accept anything less"? How do I begin to use "strict"? Can I just change the "transitional" to "strict" and see if the page gives me errors? Or do I have to hard code everything? :*(
denizengt
December 13th, 2007, 07:18 PM
Don't stress mate, it's more a way of coding xHTML than anything else. I'm talking about XHTML 1.0 Strict, not HTML 4.0 Strict which are different things. Create your documents using XHTML 1.0 Strict for modern web projects.

Create a Transitional document, then use an xHTML Validator (search Google if you do not know what this is) in Strict Mode and see what errors it gives you. Or do what you suggested, change transitional to strict in the doctype declaration, and again try validating.

This should help you explore the differences between Strict and Transitional
http://24ways.org/2005/transitional-vs-strict-markup