Display Column Numbers

Report · Apr 06, 2020

How do I show column numbers in code view? I've searched and can't find an answer. Im trying to fix errors that DW shows. Most of mine are Special Characters must be escaped : [ < ], I have no idea what that means.
Thanks

Alan

Report · Apr 06, 2020

If this is in HTML characters like < have special meanings so if you are writing it so that it reads as "less than", then it should be encoded as < and that will print the less than symbol to the screen. The same practice goes for SQL statements that some characters need to be escaped in statements.

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Ben

I'm not using it show less than. They are added automatically by DW. Look at this one which DW said Special Characters must be escaped : [ < ], :
Alan

Report · Apr 06, 2020

In this example your img tag is not closed with a ">" before your </a> so your markup is generating an error.

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Ben

Okay I got that one. But DW is telling me in this one that I have no <td but I do. Also, how do I show the column numbers so I can see where the DW error appears?

Alan

<td style="border:2px solid #000A00;"height="25" colspan="3" align="center" bgcolor="#99CC66"><a href="http://www.xxxxxx/Home_Page.html" class="stylelinks">HOME</a> | <a href="http://www.xxxxxxx/Contact.html" class="stylelinks">CONTACT ME</a></td>

Report · Apr 06, 2020

I would suggest just running your code through the W3 validator and fixing everything because there are a lot of errors from what I am seeing ( http://validator.w3.org ). In this code you have 4 spans opening but only 3 closing. Also you have nesting issues and blank tags in that cell.

To give an example of how this could be cleaned up:

<td style="border:2px solid #000A00;height:25px;text-align:center;background:#99CC66;" colspan="3" class="stylelinks"><a href="#">HOME</a> | <a href="#">CONTACT ME</a></td>

Then for your CSS:

.stylelinks { font-weight: bold; } //Insert any other non-link styles here

.stylelinks a { text-transform:uppercase; font-weight:normal; ... } //Insert any other link styles here

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Ben

Okay I'll do that, but there are 4 closed spans- see below. Also it has a <td and a </td> yet DW is throwing up an error. Did you see my question about how to show column numbers in Code View?

Thanks

Alan

<td style="border:2px solid #000A00;"height="25" colspan="3" align="center" bgcolor="#99CC66"><a href="http://www.xxxxxx/Home_Page.html" class="stylelinks">HOME</a> | <a href="http://www.xxxxxxx/Contact.html" class="stylelinks">CONTACT ME</a></td>

Report · Apr 06, 2020

If it's not coming from another error, earlier in your code, these two attributes need a space between them in your <td>...

"border:2px solid #000A00;"height="25"

...needs to be...

"border:2px solid #000A00;" height="25"

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Jon

I've checked every <td> and made sure there was a closing </td> but it's still flagging it as missing. Oh well, I'll just get on with life and ignore it togther with the Special Characters Must Be Escaped errors.

Thanks

Alan

Report · Apr 06, 2020

It may not be the <td> tag itself. The missing space I pointed out above will throw an error for sure and should be fixed. It's possible, with a lot of other errors on the page, that the validator simply can't give you the right answer to fix it anymore.

Ignoring structural defects in your code is a pretty terrible idea and will very likely come back to bite you when it comes to display problems in real browsers. Code needs to be right, or the display in a browser won't be. Browsers are programmed to guess what the developer meant to do when they run into code problems, but with too many problems in one page, they will ultimately fail and either render sections or the entire page incorrectly.

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Jon

I fixed that error where there was a missing space in front of the word height. These are the only errors that DW throw up.

Alan

These are the errors that Validator shows (apart from the "USE CSS Instead errors).

From line 2, column 1; to line 2, column 186

I don't know why it doesn't like the "|" because that separator came from GoogleFonts as the correct way to separate font styles.

No space between attributes.

At line 54, column 44

solid #000A00;"height="25" col

I fixed this yet it still shows as an error.

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Alan,

1. Click in Code view panel.

2. Go to View > Code View Options > tick Line Numbers.

3. There is no option for column numbers & there never has been one.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Nancy

Okay, thanks but what's the point of the Validator or the internal DWcode showing the column locations of the errors?

Alan

Report · Apr 06, 2020

It wasn't created by Adobe.

The Validation Window is actually getting its results from the W3C online validation tool.

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Fixing code errors goes beyond the scope of this product forum. We're happy to answer your questions about Dreamweaver. But we can't back you out of careless coding mistakes.

Coding errors are inevitable. We all make them from time-to-time. Knowing how to fix your errors is an essential skill. If you can't do it, you need to review HTML basics.

https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_intro.asp

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Nancy

I hear what you're saying but I'm not the one adding the code errors. I very very rarely work in Code View. I work in Design View. As Ive said before, I set the style of the headings or the body and let DW add the code from my style sheet. Ive fixed all but these four errors in my template (and the two Special Characters must be escaped is most definitely a DW error thinking it's a > greater than symbol) so I'll see what errors DW adds as I paste in the body of my story. Im very careful not to copy directly out of my WP program so as not to copy over any formatting but copy and paste into TextEdit and them copy and paste from their.

Alan

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Please show all of the code. That way we may be able to replicate the problem.

Wappler, the only real Dreamweaver alternative.

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Okay Ben, here it is. I edited to maintain my privacy but it doesn't affect the four errors that I showed in my last post.

Alan

<head>

<title>STORY TITLE</title>

<style>

.h1 {

font-family: "quicksand", sans-serif;

font-size: 18px;

color: #983200;

text-align: center;

font-weight: 400;

letter-spacing: 5px;

font-style: normal;

display: block;

}

.h2 {

font-family: "Arial";

color: #006600;

text-align: center;

font-size: 16px;

font-weight: bold;

letter-spacing: 25px;

display: block;

}

.h3{

font-family: 'Cormorant Garamond';

color: #242424;

font-size: 32px;

font-weight: lighter;

text-align: center;

font-style: normal;

}

</style>

</head>

<html>

<tbody>

<tr>

<td align="center" bgcolor="#B9E181" style="text-align: center">Story Title

A story from Tempest's fertile imagination</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td height="48" colspan="3">STANDARD DISCLAIMER: The material herein is fictional and is intended as entertainment. All characters in the story are fictitious; any similarity to any persons, places, individuals or situations is purely coincidental. The author does not necessarily condone nor endorse any of the activities described in this story.</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style="border:2px solid #000A00;"height="25" colspan="3" align="center" bgcolor="#99CC66"><a href="http://www.A.org/Home_Page.html" class="stylelinks">HOME</a> | <a href="http://www.A.org/Contact.html" class="stylelinks">CONTACT ME</a></td>

</tr>

<tr>

Story synopsis:

Word Count: 0000

Published: Xxxx 00 2019

<hr>

<hr>

CONTACT THE AUTHOR

I'd love to hear what you thought of this story—did you love it, hate it or meh? Your comments are the only reward an author receives.

If you wish to contact me direct then please click here: <a href="mailto:A.org?subject=STORY TITLE">Email Me</a>

Or click <a href="https://www.A.org/Home_Page.html">here</a> return to my home page.

Or use the form mail below. If you wish to receive a reply, please include your email address. I reply to all emails.

Thanks

Tempest

If you would like to be notified when new stories are published on my website, please click <a href="mailto:A.org?subject=Add My Email Address">here</a> to have your email address adding to my list. I only send out email notifications using the Bcc: option to maintain my readers privacy.

<hr>

<hr>

Copyright © 2020 by Tempest. ALL Rights Reserved! This material may NOT be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author. You may download them for your own personal use, but if you wish to post them on other websites, please get my permission beforehand.</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

</html>

Report · Apr 07, 2020

DW did not do this by itself.

The <html> tag needs to wrap the entire page, right now, your <head> section is outside of it, that's invalid.

The first line of the code needs to be a doctype declaration. The most current would be <!doctype html> which should then be followed immediately by your <html> tag, then the <head> section.

You're also still missing a space between your attributes.

Finally, you should also have a set of <body> tags that start immediately after your </head> and end just before the final; </html>

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Jon

Okay, I added <html> on line 1.

I've gone through the code and I can't find where I need to add spaces between attridbutes. I would appreciate it if you please point them out.

If I add <!doctype html> on line 1, then there is a gap between the bottom of the image and the cell in which it resides - see screenshot. Ive tried and tried to fix it, but the only way I've found so far is to remove the <!doctype html>. If you have any suggestions then I would be grateful if you would let me know.

Having done all of the above changes, I'm still getting the Special Characters must be escaped.

Thanks for your help

Alan

Screen Shot 2020-04-07 at 8.42.21 AM.png

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Removing the doctype is never the right way to fix a display problem. That space is the browser default text-descender padding added to images. It's easily removed by adding "vertical-align:bottom" to the image's css.

Could you repost your current code?

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Jon

The image is not in my stylesheet, its in HTML code. I tried making the cell align bottom, but that didn't work.

Alan

Edit. Fixed it, I added valign="bottom" to the image.

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Well, I guess even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while. Thanks for all your help.

Alan

Report · Apr 07, 2020

If you don't want to target the image with a class or id, you can add the following to the top of your stylesheet...

img {vertical-align:bottom;}

Or within a style attribute of the image itself...

<img style="vertical-align:bottom;" src="yourimg.jpg">

Report · Apr 07, 2020

Thanks Jon. I used the align="bottom" in the image style attribute and it worked fine. You can see from the green checkmark that all the errors have now been fixed.

Alan

Display Column Numbers

1 Correct answer