Validation problem - td doesnt have an attribute "background" - HTML forum at WebmasterWorld

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Validation problem - td doesnt have an attribute "background"

fendy

3:05 am on Nov 5, 2006 (gmt 0)

I am using dreamweaver for building my site and i have this error in html validation

it says

the tag td doesnt have an attribute :"background" in currently active version HTML 4.0

What does this mean, does that mean that i can not add the picture to the background of the table to make it compliant?

Thanks you

keyplyr

10:04 am on Nov 5, 2006 (gmt 0)

Background images must be defined in CSS.

td {
background:url(http://www.your-domain.com/mages/navbarboth.jpg) repeat;
color:#000;
}

penders

12:48 pm on Nov 5, 2006 (gmt 0)

Just for the record... I think the BACKGROUND attribute was only ever valid for the <body> tag. Although this is now deprecated (still valid under am HTML 4.01 loose DOCTYPE).

I think the BACKGROUND attribute on other elements, such as the <td> tag, was initially IE only. Although it was later adopted by other browsers, it never made the W3C specification.

As keyplyr says, you need to use CSS.

g1smd

8:19 pm on Nov 5, 2006 (gmt 0)

Using CSS makes the whole design process far easier.

Start by marking up your content as headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, forms (and images). Those are the main building blocks.

Write a default style for each of those types of content.

Next add class names to any blocks of content that are going to be displayed differently to that default: the footer paragraph and the navigation list for example, and then define the styles for those classes too.

You've now got a template for the whole site to use.