Which DOCTYPE should I use?

**Dormilich** · Jan 20 '11, 01:47 PM

basically you can use 2 doctypes: HTML 4.01 or HTML5. HTML5 is recommended if you plan to use some of its new functionality/elements.

HTML 4:

Code:

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

HTML5:

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html>

if you absolutely need frames, you’ll need the Transitional or Frameset variant of HTML 4.

PS. don’t forget to validate your code: http://validator.w3.org/

**drhowarddrfine** · Jan 20 '11, 03:17 PM

Doctype is short for "Document Type Definition" and DTD. Essentially, it's the rules set for each element on the page. If you don't define which set of rules you are using ahead of time, then you are in 'quirks mode' and it's like 1998 all over again.

New web pages should always use the strict doctype as shown by Dorm above. However, there is no problem using the so called "html5 doctype" since this puts all browsers in 'standards mode' which is the same thing as HTML 4.01 strict.

The doctype is the very first thing you start with on a page and never, ever change it.

**Melissa De Luca** · Jan 20 '11, 11:02 PM

GREAT! Thank you :)

what do you mean by frames? I am mainly using tables and ap divs? Can you give ma an example?

**Melissa De Luca** · Jan 20 '11, 11:08 PM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dt d">

That is the doc type that was automatically in my code. So just confirm I need to change this to the code provided by dormilich? Just confused because "drhowarddrfine " says never to change it? :s

**Dormilich** · Jan 21 '11, 07:17 AM

if you don’t know about frames, leave it as such (frames are outdated anyways)

**drhowarddrfine** · Jan 21 '11, 12:44 PM

@Melissa,
The transitional doctype is for web pages containing older, deprecated markup that you are transitioning or combining with newer pages. Particularly, this helps with validation as the older markup won't get flagged as errors. So new web pages shouldn't be using deprecated markup and, therefore, no one has any need for the transitional doctype.

But once you've started working on a page, you should never change the doctype you are using. Change the doctype and you are changing the rules you are telling the browser you are using and this may alter the rendering of the page. So don't do that.

**Melissa De Luca** · Jan 21 '11, 10:43 PM

@drhowarddrfine
So what do I have to do in order to make my website look the same in all browswers? If my current DOCTYPE is was I indicated in a previous post?
Thanks :)

**drhowarddrfine** · Jan 21 '11, 11:03 PM

You can use that doctype without issue. Getting pages to work in all browsers is not much of a problem. Only IE is a problem. The worst browser on the planet, inept at best, and 13 years behind all others in modern standards and practices. It's an embarrassment to Microsoft.

So the only real "trick" is, test your page first in anything but IE. If you add something and test in Firefox, glance at Chrome/Safari/Opera to see how it looks there. If it looks fine, and you validated your HTML and CSS, then you know your markup is correct.

Then look at IE. Chances are something will be screwed up. Just make sure you aren't trying to "fix" your markup for IE's sake. That's how so many people run into trouble. There are hundreds of web sites dedicated to fixing IE's problems as the problems and fixes are well known. (There are none, and none needed, for any other browser.)

**Dormilich** · Jan 22 '11, 08:08 AM

www.positioniseverything.net for example

Which DOCTYPE should I use?

Which DOCTYPE should I use?

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