Title: Theme using HTML 4.0
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Theme using HTML 4.0

 *  Resolved [graemep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graemep/)
 * (@graemep)
 * [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/)
 * I wanted to create a theme using HTML 4.01 strict. However WordPress inserts 
   a link tag (the EditURI one) which is self closed XHTML style so it will not 
   validate.
 * Can I change this behaviour. In fact I do not really want the Edit URL link and
   would prefer to get rid of it.
 * Are there any other problems I am likely to encounter (other than certain plugins)?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  [Christopher J. Hradil](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chradil/)
 * (@chradil)
 * [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/#post-405980)
 * what’s wrong with the XHTML transitional standard ? or XHTML strict for that 
   matter, both of which support/require self closing tags as appropriate.
 *  [yosemite](https://wordpress.org/support/users/yosemite/)
 * (@yosemite)
 * [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/#post-405988)
 * I agree with chradil, and am confused why you’d have a validation error. Am I
   Missing something graemep?
 *  [yngwin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/yngwin/)
 * (@yngwin)
 * [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/#post-406080)
 * Add this to the top of the header.php of your theme:
    `function htmlize($buffer){
   return (preg_replace("!s*/>!", ">", $buffer)); } ob_start("htmlize");
 * That will strip the self-closing bits.
 *  Thread Starter [graemep](https://wordpress.org/support/users/graemep/)
 * (@graemep)
 * [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/#post-406106)
 * Thanks Yngwin
 * Yosemite, self closing tags are not valid HTML. It is not a huge problem in practice
   because most browsers ignore the slash, but it is nice to get pages to validate.
 * chradil, I want to use HTML 4 because its the best way to get as many browsers
   as possible into standards mode. [See this table](http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/).
 * XHTML strict also looks OK from this point of view, but I am more familiar with
   HTML.
 * I also need to use snippets of other code (web stats, ads etc) and these are 
   more likely to be valid HTML than XHTML 1.0 strict. That said most of what I 
   use at the moment does validate as XHTML 1.0 transitional so it SHOULD be OK.
 * Then there is the whole issue of sending XHTML as text/html, although I do not
   really understand what the practical implications of that are.
 *  [pospiech](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pospiech/)
 * (@pospiech)
 * [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/#post-406112)
 * About usage of strict modes one should read
    ‘Strict Is Just Another Quirky Mode’
   [http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2097](http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2097)
 *  [yngwin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/yngwin/)
 * (@yngwin)
 * [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/#post-406122)
 * Well, that’s just an opinion, and a limited one at that. I’m sure most standards-
   aware web developers don’t agree with that view.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Theme using HTML 4.0’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [html](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/html/)
 * [Strict](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/strict/)
 * [tag](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/tag/)
 * [xhtml](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/xhtml/)

 * 6 replies
 * 5 participants
 * Last reply from: [yngwin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/yngwin/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/theme-using-html-40/#post-406122)
 * Status: resolved

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