Comp25: HTML Troubleshooting

Here are some tips of common errors for helping students with their web pages. Please don't make the corrections for them. Help them spot the errors and have them correct them.

General Troubleshooting

Missing or Improper Closing Tags

Almost every tag in HTML needs to be "closed". If you have <h1> you need to end it with </h1> or your entire document will be one giant heading.

Missing Quotation Marks

The syntax of HTML requires that MOST of the references following the equals sign to be enclosed in quotation marks, such as:
<img src="bettyboop.jpg">
<body bgcolor="#00FF00">
<p align="center">
<body background="clouds.gif">

Uploading and Viewing Your Website

If you can see your U: Drive but you don't have a web-docs folder...

That's okay. You can create the web-docs folder from your U: Drive just by making the new folder manually. Make sure it is called "web-docs" exactly, with the hyphen.

If you can't access my U: Drive because you're not on the Pacific network...

You'll have to use the WebFolders website to upload your files into the web-docs folder.

If the index file in your web-docs folder looks like a notepad icon, not a web page...

You need to reveal your file extensions and then rename your file to "index.html", not "index.html.txt".

If your website is just a big blank page...

You likely forgot to close the </title> or </head> tag at the top of your page, or you never started the <body> tag.

If you get a Forbidden error when you visit your website...

You need to reset the permissions on your website and try again.

If, when you visit your website, you see a listing of files instead of your fancy new page, or you get a File Not Found error...

Either your file is not called "index.html" or you did not save it to your web-docs folder. Rename it, or move it into the web-docs folder. Make sure it is in all lowercase letters.

Page Appearance

If everything is indented like crazy...

You started an <ul> or <ol> tag but didn't finish it.

If all the writing is really, really big...

You started an <h..> tag but didn't finish it.

If my whole page is centered...

Sometimes when a document is completely centered, and you can't find where the </center> should be, don't look for the center off tag…instead look to the <h1> or <h2> tag that wasn't closed. It probably looks like this:
<h1 align=center> text here <h1>   
Notice there is no / closing the h1 tag. This cause the entire page to stay centered. In this case the centering is associated with the heading style.

Images

If I get a broken image icon...

When pictures don't work in the browser, right-click on the broken picture and examine the Properties. The Properties dialog box will tell you what the browser is looking for to display in this location. The HTML code and the full filename, including the three-character extension, must match exactly.

Always compare the HTML code to the actual files on the computer to be sure they are named exactly the same, including the extensions.

File-naming errors can be solved in one of two ways:

Rename the file

Edit the source code to reflect the correct filename

If I get a broken image icon and that image is hosted on someone else's web server...

Many times a webmaster will prevent people from using images located on their own server. If they didn't, they would have higher internet bills for each time someone used one of their photos.

If you want to use a photo on someone else's server you should save that image to your web-docs folder and link to that instead. Right-click on the image and choose Save As, then save it in web-docs with an appropriate name.

If your picture is too big...

Ideally you should edit the image in a program like Photoshop or Paint. If you can't do that, use the width and height attributes on the img tag. See this page for help on how to do that.

Links to Pages and Files

If half the page is one big link...

You forgot to finish off the <a> tag.

If the actual <a href..." code appears ON my webpage...

You forgot a quote in the href attribute. The website address or page must have quotes on both sides.

When I click on a link to another page in my site, I get "File Not Found"...

Internal link errors are always caused by wrong filenames. If the link from index.html to products.html does not work it means that the <a> tag in the index.html page is incorrect. It does not mean that there is anything wrong with the products page itself.

Perhaps the href in index.html is pointing to products.htm, rather than products.html. (Notice that one is .HTM and the other is .HTML).

Perhaps the href is looking for products.html and your file is called product.html. (Notice one has an s and one does not.)

Remember the proper syntax for an internal <a> tag is:
<a href="products.html">My Products Page</a>

Links to other Internet Sites

When I click on a link to a page on the internet, I get "File Not Found"...

If your external link does not work, it is likely because you forgot to type http:// in front of the website address. Here is the syntax for external <a> tags:
<a href="http://www.pacific.edu">Go Tigers!</a>
It might also be that the page you're trying to link to has moved or is no longer running. Check the link by typing it manually into your web browser.

If that still works, double-check your HTML code.

Links to Email

If you click on the link to test an email and it says something about Groupwise...

In the computer lab, your default email is set to Groupwise. That's just how it is, so you can't really test it from here. Try it from home.

When I click on a link to an email, I get "File Not Found"...

If your link to an email results in an error, you probably forgot to include the mailto: portion of the href attribute. Here's how it should look:
<a href="mailto:cschuler@pacific.edu">Click here to send me mail</a>