http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.nando.myacen.com/blog/

css validation:

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nando.myacen.com%2Fblog%2F&usermedium=all

pretty clear, you missed a closing ; for starters

I know that...

I just can't understand why the say some tags are wrong... such as </a> or </h1> . What are the correct tags, then?

without looking, you may not have used the wrong tags as much as youve incorrectly nested them OR left some out, which will cause errors below the missing one.

I'll take a harder look this evening when I get home from work if no-one else has helped you resolve most of those, as it is Im nearly late for work 8|

thanks, I'll be waiting for your help! :)

If you read what the validator is saying it'll tell you what the problems are. First is that you have an img tag with no alt atribute.

<img src="blahblahblah" alt="whatever" />

Next you are using an ID twice, and you can't do that. ID can only be used once, but class can be used many times, so that'll require a slight tweak to your _main and your css file.

Another one that'll fix a lot of your errors is that you need to replace & with it's encoded equivalent.

?show_name=1&count=5&display=random

becomes

?show_name=1&count=5&display=random

The rest of the params would also need to be fixed.

As you clear up a few of these you'll see where the overall pile of info it tells you goes down. Work through the errors in bits and pieces and you'll see that in no time you'll have a hunky dory page - and be a whole lot smarter about keeping it smooth. After you get your xhtml cleaned up you'll be in a good position to get your css cleaned up, though I think the 4th item is probably related to the visual dilemma you've got.

hmmm.. I'll try to fix those you mentioned.

and what about this: (and other simliar errors)

<a href="http://www.heavenisonfire.com/" target="_blank">Kay [>]</a><br />

Can't seem to understand what's wrong with it...

Try turning

Kay [>]

into

Kay [>]

and see what that does for ya. Some stuff needs to be encoded to make the code 'valid' even though most browsers will figure out > means >. It's possible the [ and ] will need to be encoded, and if so I don't know what the codes are, but to be honest I doubt it. I'm guessing that because > is what closes a tag the xhtml would rather not see it that way, so encoding it should hook you up.

I don't believe it's this error. This ( [>] ) appears all the time in the code and it only acuses error in a few ones...

Weird stuff!

You're right - I just took a wild guess. The problem with ALL those errors is really simple: you've got a UL tag with no LIs inside it. Start fixing things and it'll get easier and easier to see what else remains. Another good trick is to check the box for "show source" so you can see exactly where the errors lie in relation to everything else.

I believe none of my UL tags have LIs inside it... Is it the problem? What will happen if I remove the <ul> </ul> tags?

Ok, I fixed al the UL tags and I got rid of 15 errors at once! :)

But I'm still having too many problems with those types of errors:

end tag for "img" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

document type does not allow element "a" here; missing one of "object", "span", "bdo", "applet", "iframe", "tt", "i", "b", "u", "s", "strike", "big", "small", "font", "em", "strong", "dfn", "code", "q", "samp", "kbd", "var", "cite", "abbr", "acronym", "sub", "sup", "label", "ins", "del" start-tag .

*EDIT: the white background is now back (dont ask me how I did it!). Anyway, I still want the page to be validated so I still need your help with the errors mentioned above! ;)

Nando wrote:

end tag for "img" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

Make sure your image tags are self-closing, like this: <img src="blah" alt="blah" /> The space and / at the end make it self-closing.

thanks! one more problem solved! ;)