August 15, 2005

Curious George: HTML coding. I'm hand-editing an HTML document and it's corrupt because one of the tables is not closed off properly. Is there a utility that can help find the mistake, perhaps by indenting all the code? I find that the online validators aren't very helpful for this.
posted by rolypolyman 18 years ago
  • I use HTML-Kit for code verification; it will 'pretty up' your code with indents and color coding for you, too. It will yell at you for violating compliance (especially if you're using tables) but it's ignorable. I found it does take a bit to get used to the interface, has way more than you need (or I need, or probably anyone needs) but just ignore all the other options in the menus and it works nicely.
  • I use tidy.
  • most html editors will indent the code and whatnot, won't they? I'm pretty sure nvu does at least.
  • all of the above, plus xemacs. does the handy indent and color code thing, plus has a nifty flash- both-ends-of-the-bracket thing that may help. If you tell any of the above tools to auto-indent, then you just look for the spot where the indents stop making sense. Also, I work mostly in WSAD these days, and it has a pretty nice html editor that'll highlight blocks of code for ya. That's pay-for-it software, though. Not sure if Eclipse has a similar plugin for free. Good luck.
  • actually... at the moment I seem to be "working" mostly in mozilla and bzflag...
  • Thanks all -- I'll try out those programs. I have been using Notepad and MS-DOS Edit for years for HTML editing, so maybe it's time for me to fast-forward a decade.
  • Notepad2 shows the encosures, and makes sure they're closed off properly. So does NoteTab Pro, and JEdit.
  • Textpad is another alternative, designed for the programmer.
  • I second Textpad. It's a good program and the color coding on the newer versions is pretty good.
  • I usually use Notepad, but stomper's xemacs recommendation is also good. I also have a PHP editor (probably called PHPEdit) that will indent and colourfy your HTML too, but can't recall if it highlights errors.
  • I tried HTML-kit and Nvu and none of them would auto-indent the document. They kept the old, erroneous indenting intact, and I couldn't find any features useful for balancing out all the table closures.
  • I use crimson editor. It's free, relatively fast (unlike, say, most java programs), and you can do not only color coding but macros and tabbed editing. And it remembers tabs between sessions.
  • i use vim. Vim is good.
  • none of them would auto-indent Strange. This may be a stupid question, rolypolyman, but are you sure you haven't got a more basic problem - like some stray fragment which is commenting out the majority of your document?
  • Notepad2 and JEdit auto indent, too.
  • BBEdit
  • I've been using CSE HTML Validator Standard Edition for a couple of years. It interfaces with TextPad; it has integrated HTML Tidy; &, it has a Firefox extension. The newest version checks table structure.