XHTML Validation
When the University Web Group launched a new homepage in January 2004, one important change we made was to ensure that the homepage and the top-level navigation pages were written in valid HTML — to be more specific, HTML 4.01 Transitional. With the relaunch of the site in December 2004, we've "upgraded." The navigation pages now validate to XHTML 1.0 Strict and the homepage validates to XHTML 1.0 Transitional specification from the World Wide Web Consortium. (See for yourself).
Why XHTML?
XHTML is the current markup standard, and is designed to work better with any future XML-based applications. Plus, XHTML is rendered more consistently and predictably than HTML, especially in newer browsers. And better yet, there is no downside. XHTML still works fine in older browsers, while having the advantage of future compatibility. (Users with browser versions older than Internet Explorer or Netscape 4.0 are encouraged to upgrade to a newer browser to experience the site as intended.)
HTML still works
HTML is, of course, still a perfectly valid, useful markup language—and the language most Web designers are used to working with. All of the pages in the new University templates (like this one) are still designed to validate to HTML 4.01. In the future, we hope to transition the template pages to XHTML as well. In the meantime, University Web authors who use the templates (and all Web authors, really) are encouraged to write valid pages and test them against a validator, like the W3C's HTML Validator.
