Well Formed

[Chan]

I don't understand what a well-formed HTML document is. Is it just adding a / after everything like

<BR />

??

[John]

I'm not actually sure, but lately I have been using:

<br />

and

<img src="" />

rather than

<br>

and

<img src=""></img>

I'm really not sure the advantage or even if there is one.

[xtraze]

Originally Posted by Chan

I don't understand what a well-formed HTML document is. Is it just adding a / after everything like

<BR />

??

<BR> is well enough for HTML pages with simple HTML commands, but when you combine HTML with XML you get Xhtml where there are some rules to follow.

1. Codes must be in simple letters. ( no CAPS )
2. Single tags must end with />

Now for the good things of Xhtml.

1. Can include attributes.
Eg. width,height, and more of them.
Eg.
<img scr="#" width="555" height="50%" />
<hr width="80" />

[Jordan]

Originally Posted by Sidewinder

I'm really not sure the advantage or even if there is one.

Its for devices other than browsers to parse webpages such as PDA and Cell Phones. With HTML it doesn't matter if your page is coded right, it will probably still display correctly. With the advent of things other than browsers parsing HTML XHTML became a critical new function and has strict rules.

Having said all of that, I still see no difference in webpages that are coded correctly with XHTML and regular HTML pages on my Cell Phone.

[xXHalfSliceXx]

Goes along with XHTML format. Which is updated all the time

[xtraze]

No need to be afraid of xHTML as this are the only difference and you can use xHTML as you learn new commands and attributes.

[Chan]

So am I right? Well formed is always having a closing "/"?

I've also read that in xHTML everything should be lower case:

<BR />

Should be:

<br />

[xtraze]

Absolutely correct.
And there are more things in HTML coding than the xHTML well forming.
Like when you are coding, it is a good thing to make line breaks between some codes to make it readable. And there are more.