HTML Validation

HTML Validation is the process in which a document is compared to a set of document rules. A report is then generated of these rule violations. The report is used to identify errors, correct those errors, and resubmit the document for validation.

Why Validate Your HTML?

The best way to determine why (or whether) to validate your HTML is to ask what could possibly happen if you do not validate. The way invalid HTML is rendered across a wide variety of browsers is unpredictable. In some environments, such as corporate or campus intranets, there may not be a wide variety of browsers.

HTML Validation serves to provide maximum predictability over time and over a range of browsers. Authors can safely choose not to validate if such predictability is not terribly valuable. While it may never hurt to validate a document, you may never know what surprises will turn up. Some documents will serve their purpose even with numerous errors.