Frequently Asked Questions

 

Why is it important to add a doctype statement to my pages?
According to HTML standards, each HTML document requires a document type declaration. The "DOCTYPE" begins the HTML document and tells a validator which version of HTML to use in checking the document's syntax. For more details visit - DOCTYPE - DTD - Document Type Declaration. Your pages will NOT validate without a doctype statement.
Why should I worry about validating my pages?
Page validation ensures that the HTML code used in your Web content is consistent with the standards and recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). If you use valid code to write your pages, you ensure that they will behave consistently across modern browsers and devices. Cleaning up broken or nonstandard code makes your pages leaner and easier to maintain. Leaner code conserves network bandwidth and helps your pages download faster.
Why should I add an alt tag to my images?
The alt attribute is used to define an "alternate text" for an image. The "alt" attribute tells the reader what he or she is missing on a page if the browser can't load images. The browser will then display the alternate text instead of the image. It is a good practice to include the "alt" attribute for each image on a page, to improve the display and usefulness of your document for people who have text-only browsers or use screen readers. Adding ALT tags in Expression Web.
How can I disable the browser's right-click options? How can I protect my source, images, etc. from being copied?
If you think disabling right-click will protect your source code or images, you are WRONG! If the person wants your source code, it's as simple as selecting 'view source' from the main menu. Text can be highlighted and copied and images and media presentations can be retrieved from the cache. Not only that, but you can only disable right-click on browsers that have JavaScript enabled: a visitor only has to turn off JavaScript in their browser's options to be able to ignore the script altogether!  Read more. . .
How Do I Turn Off Right Click?
How can I disable the browser's right-click options? How can I protect my source, images, etc. from being copied?
What location do I publish to when using a RootsWeb freepages account?
Using Expression Web The location you want to use is:  ftp://users.freepages.rootsweb.com/genealogy_html. You have a choice of a number of different directories. Publishing With Expression Web - Step-by-Step Tutorial.
What location do I publish to when using a RootsWeb public account?
ftp://users.rootsweb.com/public_html
When using Expression Web, how can I return a single line instead of double spacing when I hit the 'enter' key?
Hold down the 'shift' key and hit 'enter'.
How do I unsubscribe from the Expression Web mailing list?
Mail mode: Send an email to [email protected] with the single word unsubscribe in the message subject and body.
Digest mode: Send an email to [email protected] with the single word unsubscribe in the message subject and body.
Why do I get funny characters on my page when I view online?
This is the BOM or Byte Order Mark for the default UTF-8 characterset. Some server side scripting languages such as PHP and some browser do not properly support the BOM see UTF-8 Characterset tutorial.
What are the _vti folders?
Metadata is stored in special folders which are hidden by default to prevent them from accidentally being deleted, changed, or moved. The folder _vti_cnf folder contains information about every file, such as which links are within the file. The _vti_pvt folder stores all of the configuration information for the site.  Read Add or remove metadata in Expression Web for more information on these important files.