This is the first tab where you set up options that affect the validation engine and its output. The validator options are divided into more than one tab because of the large number of options that are available.
Validator 1 Options
Edit Boxes
| • | Maximum errors - This edit box lets you specify the number of errors that CSE HTML Validator will generate for a single HTML document before terminating the validation due to too many errors. It is recommended that you do not set this to more than 20 errors, since one "true" error can cause many other "phantom" errors to be generated that may not necessarily provide useful information. Correct the first few errors of a document, and then revalidate it to see how the correction of the first few errors affect the remaining errors; they may all disappear. The default is 20 errors. Accepted values range from 1 to 9999, inclusive, although values over 20 are not recommended. |
| • | Maximum warnings - This edit box lets you specify the number of warnings that CSE HTML Validator will generate for a single HTML document before terminating the validation due to too many warnings. The default is 20 warnings. Accepted values range from 1 to 9999, inclusive, although values over 20 are not recommended. |
Message/Output Options
| • | Show warnings - Check this box to show any warning messages that are generated during a validation. This box must be checked to receive any warning messages, even if Show comment warnings is checked. It is highly recommended that you keep this option enabled (most warning messages are usually important). This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Show comment warnings - Check this box to show warning messages when a comment in the form <!-- --> contains '<' and '>' characters. This option only has an effect if Show warnings is checked. This option is not enabled by default. |
| • | Show missing attribute warnings - Check this box if you want HTML Validator to show warning messages for missing attributes that have the Warn if missing option checked. This option only has an effect if Show warnings is checked. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Show messages - Check this box if you want HTML Validator to show any non-error, non-warning, and non-comment messages generated when a HTML document is validated. These messages typically have a blue box in front of them when displayed in the Results Window and contain miscellaneous and generally useful information. Note that messages in the context of this option are messages generated by the validator engine that are not errors, warnings, or comments. It is highly recommended that you keep this option enabled. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Show comments - Check this box if you want HTML Validator to show comment messages generated when an HTML document is validated. These comments may provide you with useful information. Some comments are dependent on the kind of errors and warnings generated. It is recommended that you keep this option enabled and that you read any comments that are produced. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Show extended message info - Check this box if you want to enable extended messages. Currently extended messages include displaying the actual valid and invalid range when a tag is out of range, displaying the valid attributes when an invalid attribute is used, and displaying the valid attribute values for an attribute when an invalid attribute value is used. Disabling extended messages simplify certain messages but also reduce the amount of information contained in them. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Change warning messages to error messages - Check this box to change warning messages to error messages. You may want to check this box if you consider warning messages to be as serious as error messages and therefore want warning messages to be treated the same as error messages. This option is not enabled by default. |
| • | Enable override by message ID - ( Pro, Std,  Lite) Most (but not all) validator messages have a unique message ID. This unique message ID can be used to disable individual messages or to change an individual message's type (for example, from a warning to an error). This is normally done by bringing up the context menu for the individual message and choosing an option under Options for this Message. When Enable override by message ID is checked, changes to messages by message ID will take effect (this is the default). This means that if you disabled an individual message or changed a message's type, then the change that you made will override the default state. If this option is unchecked, then the changes will not override the default state but the messages that would have been affected if this option were checked will be indicated by an [OVERRIDE ...] string in the message. By temporarily unchecking this option, you can see what changes have been made and you can enable a message that has previously been disabled. This option is enabled by default. |
Spell Checking Options (Pro, Std, Lite)
These spell checking options affect the spell checker in the validator engine, not in the editor. CSE HTML Validator Lite supports editor spell checking but not validator engine spell checking.
| • | Enable spell checking - Check this box to enable a validator spell checking message containing a list of words that may be misspelled. By default, the list is limited to 50 words but this limit can be changed. Enabling spell checking will result in slightly slower validations, especially when using HTML Validator with most third party tools because the dictionary may need to be loaded for every validation. If you want faster validations, then disabling spell checking may slightly speed up validations. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Check spelling in comments - Check this box to enable spell checking for words that are contained in HTML comments. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Check '#' comments - Check this box to check the spelling in comments that have '#' as the first non-whitespace character after "<!--" or "<!", otherwise these comments are not spell checked. Comments starting with exactly "<!--#" are considered server-side includes (SSIs) and will not be spell checked regardless of this option. This option is not enabled by default. |
| • | Restore - Press this button to restore the message ID options for the spelling message. This option may be used to make the spelling message reappear in the validation results when the Enable spell checking option is enabled but the spelling message has been disabled with the message ID feature. If the message type of the spelling message has also been changed using the message ID feature, this will restore the message type back to the default. |
| • | Display misspelled word list message as a warning instead of a comment - Check this box if you want the message containing the words that may be misspelled to be a warning message instead of a comment message. Warning messages normally cause an "error or warning" sound at the end of a validation but comment messages do not. By controlling whether the misspelled word list message is a warning or comment message, you have some control over how severe misspelled words are when they occur and whether an "error or warning" sound is generated. This option is not enabled by default. |
| • | Include the # of times a word has been misspelled in the misspelled word list msg - This is best explained using an example: If you have used the misspelled word "validater" three times and this option is checked, "validater" will be displayed in the misspelled word list as "validater (3x)" to indicate that you have misspelled it three times. If this option is unchecked, then it will be displayed as "validater" with no indication of how many times this word was found. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Sort misspelled word list by number of occurrences of the misspelled word instead of alphabetically - Check this option to sort the misspelled word list in ascending (increasing) order by the number of times the misspelled word was found. Usually misspelled words will only be misspelled once and therefore would appear at the beginning of the misspelled word list if this option is checked. Words that are correct but not in the dictionary are likely to be repeated more than once and, therefore, to be at the end of the list if this option is checked. Words misspelled the same number of times are sorted alphabetically within the subsection of the list that contains words misspelled the same number of times. If this option is not checked, then the list is sorted alphabetically. This option is enabled by default. |
| • | Maximum number of misspelled words to list in the misspelled word list message - Set this option to limit the number of misspelled words in the misspelled word list validator message. The default is 50. (New v9.00) |
NOTE: Words contained in tags that are marked as "ignore to close" (like "style" and "script") are not checked. This is true even if the words are in comments and Check spelling in comments is checked.
NOTE: The above options affect spell checking as done by the validator engine. Spell checking from the integrated editor is different. These options do not affect the spell check when done using the Spell Check tool in the integrated editor.
