Why use HTML 4.0

HTML 3.2 Was Very Wrong !

The original HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document. HTML tags were intended to define the content of the document like:

<p>This is a paragraph</p>

<ul>This is an unordered list</ul>.

When tags like <font> and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2 specification, it started a developers nightmare. Development of large web sites where fonts and color information had to be added to every single Web page, became a long, expensive and undue pain.

What is so Great About HTML 4.0 ?

With HTML 4.0 all formatting can be moved out of the HTML document and into a separate style sheet.

Because HTML 4.0 separates the presentation of the document from its structure, we have got what we always needed: Total control of presentation layout without messing up the document content.

What Should You do About It ?

Stop using presentation style attributes inside your HTML tags.

Our complete HTML Tag Reference indicates deprecated HTML 4.0 tags and attributes. It also includes a lot of examples with complete source code.

Also take a look at our CSS Section and start a new developer life.

Prepare Yourself for XHTML

XHTML is the next generation of HTML. You should start preparing for it now. The most important thing you can do is to start writing valid HTML 4.01. Also start writing your tags in lower case. Always close your tag elements. Never end a paragraph without </p>.

NOTE: The official HTML 4.01 recommends the use of lower case tags.

If you want to read about how this web site was converted to XHTML. Go to our XHTML School.

Validate Your HTML Files as HTML 4.01

An HTML document is validated against a Document Type Definition (DTD). Before an HTML file can be properly validated, a correct DTD must be added as the first line of the file.

The HTML 4.01 Strict DTD includes elements and attributes that have not been deprecated or do not appear in framesets:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

The HTML 4.01 Transitional DTD includes everything in the strict DTD plus deprecated elements and attributes:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

The HTML 4.01 Frameset DTD includes everything in the transitional DTD plus frames as well:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">

Test Your HTML With the W3C Validator

Computer Joke

Customer: What P?
Support: The P on your keyboard.
Customer: What do you mean?
Support: P on your keyboard.
Customer: I'm not going to do that!

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How we converted to XHTML

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