What could cause the occasional stray text characters and other weird symbols that show up on my Web pages when theres nothing in the source code to indicate anythings there?
You may be inadvertently entering hidden control characters into your Web documents as you type in your word processor or HTML editor. Some HTML editors offer a menu command for stripping out these troublesome characters, or “gremlins,” as they’re sometimes called. If you’re a Mac user, you can strip them out with Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit or World Wide Web Weaver, among others. On the Windows side, the Textpad text editor from Helios Software Solutions will help you strip out hidden control characters. You should note that these HTML checkers do only that; they’re no substitute for testing how your pages display in several browsers. A comprehensive list such as Yahoo’s list of HTML validation checkers would be a good starting point for you. Two well-known HTML validation tools are Weblint (which recently became subscription-based) and WebTechs (formerly HAL’s HTML Validator). Dear Dr.
Related Questions
- What could cause the occasional stray text characters and other weird symbols that show up on my Web pages when theres nothing in the source code to indicate anythings there?
- How come these web pages look so weird and/or all the pictures are kind of chopped up and/or I can read all the text and links?
- How do I add special characters like degree signs or mathematical symbols to my web pages?
