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[Validators][Help Sites][What's the Difference?]
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HTML Help Sites

WWW Consortium

It can be rather technical, but W#C's page has the latest specifics on HTML tags and their use. Use it only if you know what you're doing and you really, really want to. It's definitely the site to use though if you need to check your cutting edge technology web site.

Crash Course in HTML

This cute, interactive tutorial is excelent for beginners. You have to be able to handle cute though. And it really is for beginners so if you have a page up and are looking for just improving it i would try a different site. But if it's your first page, this is the place for you.

Beginner's Guide to HTML

The National Center for Supercomputing Application's (NCSA's) in-depth guide is a terrific HTML guide. It's a surprisingly quick read too. Though it's still a begginer's site it covers enough info to bridge the gap between the beginner and intermediate and advanced sites.

WebMonkey Tutorial

Wired magazine'sWeb Monkey tutorial is a good place for intermediate users who want a refresher course. It's also a great sire for learning Internet history, advanced HTML techniques, and Web design. This is another gap bridging site for those who need it.

The Compendium of HTML Elements

"The Compendium" is a huge list of HTML tags. In addition to its exhaustive collection, the Compendium reports on which browsers support a tag, how to use it, and how it works. It even explains what may go wrong. It's highly reccomaneded for Webheads.

HTML Validators

The WebSite Garage

This is by far and away one of the easiest "validators" to use. It isn't just a validator either. It points out many useful ways that you can improve your page. Such items as load time, spelling, search engine compatibility are also tested. A very nice site.

Weblint

Weblint is a syntax and minimal style checker for HTML: a Perl script which picks fluff off html pages, much in the same way traditional lint picks fluff off C programs. WebLint is used in many other browsers as an "option" to validation, again to pick the fluff off you pages. Unfortunately this site itself will not check your page, you will have to download the program or go to another page that uses Weblint.

WebTechs

With several different methods of submitting your page for validation you can be certain that even if you've been having trouble getting other on-line services to validate your page that this one will work. It also has a Weblint option.

W3C Validation

Definitely the industry standard for checking out sites. A very nice site. It's fast and can ususally find your page even if you enter in the wrong URL. This site of course has a Weblint option as well and a selectable list of Formal Public Identifiers (FPI) and can over-ride the one specified in your page.

Other Validators

This is a fairly good list of other validation services from around the web. It's actually a list that is from the Weblint site. Sso if my list doesn't meet your needs one of the site listed here should.

Help Sites vs. Validators
Well the most noticable difference is that a help site appears to be a lot friendlier. All the most validators do is tell you how messed up your page is. This is useful if you already have designed a page and you wish to ensure that you have no coding or compliance errors. But it won't do you much good if you don't know how to write HTML in the first place. The help sites listed above will walk you through the basics of getting your first page up and running on the 'net. They will even help you improve your page and work on some more advanced coding. And if you do as they say chances are you'll end up with a page that meets all or most of the industry standard for HTML. But to be sure you can always come back and check with one of the vaidators and find where there may be problems with your site that you cannot see with your browser or on your machine.
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