WebAssist today announced the release of Jeffrey Zeldman's Web Standards Advisor, a Dreamweaver extension for web designers creating web standard compliant sites. The extension includes full HTML and CSS validation as well as checks a wide range of web standard issues.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of developing standards compliant websites is confronting the lengthy set of rules and arduous recommendations, even for the most seasoned web professional. The Web Standards Advisor extension, however, meets that challenge head-on with an interesting approach. First, the Web Validator sends web pages directly to the W3C HTML and CSS validators to make sure the basics of web design are covered. Designers can validate everything from a single page to a full website in a single operation. An emerging technology, microformats, are also validated. Any errors found are reported both in an interactive fashion that allows direct access to the offending code and in a fully, print-friendly report. After the validation has been completed, designers can check for web standards compliance in nine different areas, including structural integrity and labeling, as well as for the use of proper classes.
"The Web Standards Advisor is great for the designer who is climbing aboard the web standards train, and needs hands-on help understanding the principles of structured, semantic markup," said Jeffrey Zeldman. "But it's also surprisingly useful for the advanced coder. I found mistakes in my own website, and in code by other web standards gurus. It really works."
Joseph Lowery, Vice President of Product Management, said, "We're honored to work with Jeffrey and bring the Web Standards Advisor to life. We hope it proves to be a major step forward for the web standards movement and helps all web designers -- beginner and pro alike -- to create faster, more flexible sites efficiently. On top of being a major productivity boost, Web Standards Advisor is a great learning aid with the explanations and suggestions from Jeffrey built right into the product."
