Whole-Document Validation

At the left end of an HTML Document Window’s or WordPress Post Window’s path bar, TypeMetal shows the HTML file’s or WordPress post’s validation status. This indicates whether the document conforms to the requirements for its document type.

• A green light means the document passed validation.
• A yellow light means there are some problems that TypeMetal suggests you fix. These are usually not serious problems, but fixing them will help improve your markup and give it a clean bill of health.
• A red light means that TypeMetal found one or more serious structural issues in the file’s markup, that had to be corrected before TypeMetal could load the file. If the file opened successfully, these issues have been repaired, and the red warning light and corresponding structural errors will go away the first time you save changes to the file.

As you type and edit, TypeMetal re-assesses your document’s validation status. TypeMetal’s editing engine will prevent you from introducing serious problems into your document structure (such as inserting certain HTML elements in contexts where they are not allowed), but it will not forbid you from deviating from the spec in less serious ways that may or may not be OK (such as adding your own custom attributes, or omitting the required but frequently omitted “alt” attribute from an <img> tag).

If TypeMetal finds any problems, the path bar’s indicator light will turn yellow. You can click on the light to see a list of the issues that were found. You can click on an issue in the list to select the corresponding element or fragment of content, so that you can find and repair it.

Validation on Load

When you open an existing HTML file, TypeMetal validates the file on the way in. If the file contains any problems that are serious enough to prevent it from being parsed and understood by Web browsers (for example, missing or mismatched HTML element tags), TypeMetal will attempt to repair those issues before presenting the file to you for editing.

User-Defined Attributes

If you check “Allow user-defined attributes” in TypeMetal’s General settings panel, the validation issue list will omit “proprietary attribute” warnings for attributes that aren’t named in the HTML spec. This can help reduce unwanted clutter in the validation issue list, when you’re intentionally working with custom attributes.