Broken Links

Checking broken links

Every time you Install or edit a file, check all the links. Not just before, but after it is Installed.

Stupid things that can happen

While cutting and pasting, you can easily miss the first character of a line, like < and leave a tag like this:

     Li><a href="#birds">Birds of North America</a>
Or you can accidentally erase one of the " quotes while typing in the name. or altering the name, like this:
     <h3><a name=cats">Foolish looking cats</a></h3>

Caps in file and path names

It is easy to mis-type file names. You have a related file dog.html, but you type:
     <h3><a href="Dog.html">Shetland Sheep Dog</a></h3> 
or...
     <h3><a href="dog,html">Shetland Sheep Dog</a></h3> 
If it is in the SPCA/ directory, it is easy to type:
     <h3><a href="spca/dog.html">Shetland Sheep Dog</a></h3>
To avoid these errors, I always use copy-and-paste. Never re-type.

Stray < or > or "

Here is an example. This one is murder! It blotted out most of the file.

     <!--<
Here are two more with stray characters that accidentally got left in the tags.
     <<Li><a href="#birds">Birds of North America</a>
     <h3><a name=cats">>Foolish looking cats</a></h3>

Searching for named anchors

Named anchors are one of the biggest sources of tag trouble. When you find a bad link:

Using the HTML Checker

With the cursor on your file, just press f for Full Menu and select HTML Check. Back will come a report telling you all your html errors and where they are in your file.