Validate Document

Once a document is opened, there are several ways to validate a document in CSE HTML Validator:

• Press F6, or
• Select Tools->Validate from the main menu, or
• Bring up the editor window's or Results Window's context menu and choose Validate, or
• Press the Validate Document toolbar button on the Main Toolbar or Editor Toolbar, or
• Press Alt+Up or Alt+Down if the document hasn't already been validated, or
• Click on a panel in the Results Window that states that clicking on the panel will validate the document.

After validating, the validation results will appear in the Results Window.

Also see the Validating Local Documents and Validating URLs topics.

Validation Modes

CSE HTML Validator supports several validation modes (when using the default configuration file). For example, an "errors only" validation can be done by choosing Tools->Validate->Errors only. In this mode, only the most important messages (errors) are shown. This is useful when concentrating only on the most severe issues. Other validation modes are also available when using the default configuration file. Some validation modes are described below (most are self-explanatory).

• Accessibility - Displays messages related to accessibility issues, especially for disabled visitors who may be blind or deaf but also for non-disabled visitors. Use this validation mode to generate messages that can help improve a page's accessibility. Most or all of the accessibility validator messages will appear in the Accessibility tab of the Results Window. The accessibility checker can be configured with the options in the Accessibility Tab of the Validator Engine Options.
• Deprecation messages only - Displays messages related to deprecated elements and attributes. Deprecated elements and attributes should not be used because they may become obsolete in the future. Furthermore they have typically been replaced with better mechanisms (like CSS). Most or all of the deprecated validator messages will appear in the Grouped tab of the Results Window.
• Search engine messages only - Displays messages related to search engine listings and rankings. Use this validation mode to generate messages that can help improve a page's search engine ranking. Most or all of the search engine validator messages will appear in the Grouped tab of the Results Window.
• Standard compliant check - Disables many non-standard tag categories that contain proprietary elements and attributes and performs a more standards compliant validation using CSE HTML Validator's own powerful engine.
• HTML Tidy messages only - Uses HTML Tidy to check the document and displays only the messages generated by HTML Tidy.
• Nsgmls messages only - Uses nsgmls to check the document and displays only the messages generated by nsgmls.
• Link check only - Extracts the links in the document and performs a link check.