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How to make a website | W3C Doctypes and Charactersets

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) create a standard so that all web browsers can conform to this standard.

Check them out here at W3C

Document Type Definitions

The W3C consortium developed 3 types of document declarations.

Your first line of HTML code should contain a declaration of which version of HTML you are using in the document.

This document declaration is called "Document Type Definitions" or DTD in short. Basically this states the language rule used in html document.

Here are the three DTD's

1. Strict DTD

Strict DTD is used in documents that uses valid HTML 4markup .

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

2. Loose DTD

This specification is not as strict as strict dtd, but accomodate older markup that is not used anymore. Back compatible.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

3. Frameset DTD

This DTD is used for a HTML frameset document that uses frames.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">

HTML Basic Document Structure

A proper HTML document should comprise of the following 3 parts.

Here is an example HTML document structure.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>

<head>

[Head info {title and meta tags} will be here]

</head>

<body>

[Body {content} info will be here]

</body>

</html>