Validation results
Total Validator reports its results as standard web pages that can be read by a standard browser. Two types of page are used; a summary page and a results page.
Each results page provides a list of errors and warnings for a particular web page that was tested. If you only chose to test one page of your website, then this page will be returned to your browser as soon as Total Validator has finished.
If you entered an email address then a zip file will be emailed back to you containing a summary page and one or more results pages. Simply unzip this somewhere convenient and double-click the page TotalValidatorResults.html to open the summary page. This summary page provides a summary of the tests performed, together with links to results pages for each page on your website that was found to contain problems. Note that pages that did not have any problems are not listed.
topSummary page
This page is only relevant when multiple pages are tested.
A the top of the summary page is the name of and a link to the starting page you supplied. There then appears a summary of the report - including the version of the Total Validator, the options selected, and number of problems found, followed by a list of those pages validated:
If you selected the screenshot option then one or more images of the web page in your selected browser(s) will appear at the bottom of the page.
Results page
At the top of the page is the name of and a link to the page that was tested. There then appears a summary of the report - number of errors found etc., followed by a representation of the web page tested:
Normally the representation of the web page shows each of the tags within it on a separate line, with indentation showing how the tags are nested within each other. This should make it easy to read the results even with the most poorly formatted source web page or where the layout style varies across the site. It is particularly useful when the pages are generated by a computer program, as these tend to generate the most irregular web page source.
Alternatively, you can use the short report option. This will just display lines with problems on.
The line numbers on the left refer to lines in the original source so you can quickly get to and amend the faulty tag in the original web page source.
Line numbers marked as '0' refer to tags added by the tool. These are optional tags that are implicit in the standards, but are sometimes displayed in the results as somewhere to attach errors/warnings to relating to the subsequent page.
The image below shows an example of how an error is displayed. These are highlighted and begin with an 'E' (warnings begin with a 'W') followed by a unique number for the error, then some explanatory text. In most cases the Error/Warning number is a link to further information about the problem at the bottom of the page. There are also up and down arrows next to the problem to allow you to quickly see all the problems on the page. The following image shows a tag with a problem:
If there is more than one error associated with a tag then these are listed one after another on separate lines before the tag itself:
Note that column numbers referring to the original source are not displayed. This is deliberate as many problems apply to the whole tag. Also I've found that having column numbers often detracts from understanding the problem. Instead where possible the item in question will be highlighted in red as shown above.
Revalidating
If there are many problems on your page and it is difficult to determine what it wrong, you can remove many of the problems using the Revalidate section at the bottom of the results page.
Simply edit the list of error/warning numbers provided to ignore those that are not relevant and click the Revalidate button. The page will then be revalidated, but this time ignoring the list of errors/warnings you've provided, and so providing a simpler report to read.
An alternative approach is to use the Advanced Form to select those errors/warnings you wish to ignore in the Miscellaneous Options section.
Spelling mistakes
Potential spelling mistakes are dealt with as shown in the image below. The word that is not recognised by the dictionary is highlighted and followed by a list of suggested replacements:
If the spelling validator highlights a word which isn't a mistake, you can always create your own set of additional words to use.
Note that the line number given refers to the first line of the content containing the spelling mistake. So if the content spans multiple lines it may not be match the line with the mistake on. But it should still be simple to find the mistake in the original page.