Compatiblity with PC Browsers - Tips for MSNTV Users:
PROPER CODING:

  1. Put this tag first, before the <html> tag:
    <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> (or use 3.2 until you have upgraded each page.)

  2. Always nest tags properly:
    Correct: <font size="4"><b>Text here.</b></font>
    Incorrect: <font size="4"><b>Text here.</font></b>

  3. Always use lower case letters instead of caps.
    Correct: <font size="4"><b>Text here.</b><font>
    Incorrect: <FONT size="4"><B>Text here.</B></FONT>

  4. Always use quotes around all values (that which follows the equals sign):
    <font size="4" color="white">
    <body bgcolor="black" text="yellow" link="blue" vlink="orange" fontsize="small">
TAGS FOR THE HEAD:

Use both of these tags:
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="Tue, 01 Jan 1980 1:00:00 gmt">
TAGS FOR THE BODY:

TABLES:

  1. Width: always specify width in pixels, not percents.

  2. If you want the page to look the same on computers as it does for MSNTV:
    a) Use width="544" border="0" and put the whole page within this table;
    b) Center the table, using
    <div align="center"> </div>

  3. Always make hyperlinks within a table inside the td tag:
    <table> <td> <font color="black"> <a href="url of page">
    Page or Image Name</a> </font> </td> </table>

  4. Empty td tags collapse. Use the following to fill the td:
    <td color=??>& nbsp;</td>
    Be sure to delete the space between the & and the nbsp;. This code will put a "space" (content) inside the td.

  5. Add a bordercolor attribute to the table tag:
    <table bgcolor="#ccccff" border="5" bordercolor="#ccccff">
CENTERING TAGS:

For large items on page:
  1. Best: <div align="center"> </div>
    Older: <center> </center>

  2. For images and text in a table cell:
    a) Horizontal alignment: align="center" or "right" (default is left)
    b) Vertical alignment: valign="top" or "bottom" (default is middle)
MSNTV BUG WARNING:

Computers will not see this JS; put it right after the body tag:
<script>document.write("<")
!-- put your warning here -->

NOTE: no spaces in the first line and then one empty space before the close of the hide tag.
COMMENT TAGS:

Use proper comment tag form:
Correct: <!-- comment here -->
Incorrect: <5>
IMAGE TAGS:

  1. Always use the proper file extension for an image: jpg, gif, etc.

  2. Always include height and width of the image in pixels.

  3. Always add a border attribute.
    Make border="0" if you do not want computer browsers to show a default border around the image.

  4. Always add alt="description" to image tag. Make the description short.

  5. Always add a line break (<br>) after an image, even though the image is full screen width for MSNTV (544 pixels).
    Example image tag:
    <img src="url of image" height=(pixels) width=(pixels) border="0" alt="Short Description of Image">
SWF FILES:

  1. Use embed src (not img src) tags for swf files.

  2. Use the correct .swf or whatever extension. Do not use .gif.

  3. Looping #1: Do not use the attribute loop="false" unless you don't want it to loop.

  4. Looping #2: Do not use swf files as image links, because they will not loop, either.
*NOTE*: Some SWF files are designed NOT to loop.
PROPER USE OF SOUND TAGS:

  1. Use both sound tags if computer viewers will see page.

    <noembed><bgsound src="midi-url" loop=2></noembed>
    <embed src="midi-url" autostart="true" hidden="true" loop="2"></embed>

  2. Loop must be expressed as whole numbers more than 1 for computer browsers. Do not use -1 (minus 1).

  3. NOTE: The embed tag must be closed.

  4. To put more than one song on a page so viewers can click on them, leave the sound tags off.
    Use <a href="url-of-song">Name of Song</a> for each song.
REDIRECT CODES:

Use a clickable new url, with a message such as: "This page has moved! Please click on the following url:"
<a href="url of new page">Complete URL of New Page or Page Name<a>
TEXTAREA BOXES:

  1. With computer browsers, text boxes are always "default" grey with black text. (The default is different for each user and their setting's.) The boxes can be resized.

  2. With MSNTV, you can make them different colors.
    Example Sizes: Width - 10 cols equals 87 pixels. Multiply accordingly.
    Use 60 cols for a box of 522 pixels wide and center it.
COMPUTERS CAN NOT "SEE":

Block Spacers; X or Y Speed; "Fixed" Backgrounds; MSNTV's Internal "Rom border buttons"; Page Logos (in body tag); "nohighlight" Attribute in Hyperlink Tags; Some types of Javascripts and DHTML, such as JS used for scopes; and Audiocopes.
MSNTV can not "see" many types of Javascripts and DHTML that computer browsers can.

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