#### 22.14.2 Replacing high ASCII characters for W3C validation

W3C validation tests complain if a file includes any characters with ASCII decimal values 128 through 159. Presence of these characters does not preclude validation. However, if the file contains real validation errors, the W3C validator reports these characters along with the actual errors. If you fix the errors, and leave the characters, the complaint becomes just a note about “non-SGML” characters.

Note: Leaving these characters in your document does not make the output invalid, despite the somewhat misleading way the W3C validator lists them when something else in the output is not valid.

For most purposes you should not need to do anything about the characters in question. However, if you want to have DITA2Go remap or remove the offending characters, you can set the following option:

    [HTMLOptions]
    ; ValidOnly = No (default, allow normal use of chars from 128 to 160),
    ;  or Yes (for warning-free W3C validation, remaps or removes
    ;  those chars)
    ValidOnly=Yes

This option affects the following characters:

- 128 through 159 (first 32 high ASCII characters), in all fonts except the following:
  - Symbol
  - Zapf Dingbats
  - Webdings
- 171 and 187 (the guillemets), in macros only.

Setting ValidOnly=Yes changes the output as follows:

- curly quotes become straight quotes
- en dashes become hyphens
- em dashes become a pair of hyphens
- bullets (except those produced by <ul> tags) become mid-dots
- all other characters in the range are dropped, unless you map them yourself; see §30.4 Assigning properties to text formats.

Table 22-3 shows how DITA2Go treats characters in this range when ValidOnly=Yes. Depending on which version of the DITA2Go User’s Guide you are using to view the table, some characters might not be displayed.

Table 22-3 Characters replaced or removed for W3C validation

Value | Character | Name | Replacement character (if any)
128 | € | euro | Removed
129 | (none) | (none) | Removed
130 | ‚ | single base quote | ' 039 (single quote)
131 | ƒ | florin | Removed
132 | „ | double base quote | " 034 (double quote)
133 | … | ellipsis | Removed
134 | † | dagger | Removed
135 | ‡ | double dagger | Removed
136 | ˆ | circumflex | Removed
137 | ‰ | per thousand | Removed
138 | Š | S caron | Removed
139 | ‹ | left single guillemet | Removed
140 | Œ | OE ligature | Removed
141 | ˘ | (none) | Removed
142 | Ž | Z caron | Removed
143 | (none) | (none) | Removed
144 | (none) | (none) | Removed
145 | ‘ | left single quote | ' 039 (single quote)
146 | ’ | right single quote | ' 039 (single quote)
147 | “ | left double quote | " 034 (double quote)
148 | ” | right double quote | " 034 (double quote)
149 | • | bullet | · 183 (mid-dot), except in <ul> lists
150 | – | en dash | - 045 (hyphen)
151 | — | em dash | - 045 (hyphen) in text, -- (two hyphens) in macros
152 | ˜ | tilde | Removed
153 | ™ | trademark | Removed
154 | š | s caron | Removed
155 | › | right single guillemet | Removed
156 | œ | oe ligature | Removed
157 | ˝ | (varies; not used) | Removed
158 | ž | z caron | Removed
159 | Ÿ | Y diaeresis | Removed
···
171 | « | left double guillemet | " 034 (double quote), in macros only
187 | » | right double guillemet | " 034 (double quote), in macros only

See also:

§22.4.3 Specifying character encoding for HTML

§23.2.3 Specifying character encoding for generic XML

§30.4 Assigning properties to text formats

Previous Topic: 22.14.1 Understanding limitations of W3C validation

Next Topic: 22.14.3 Eliminating <nobr> tags

Parent Topic: 22.14 Passing W3C validation tests

Sibling Topics:

22.14.1 Understanding limitations of W3C validation

22.14.3 Eliminating <nobr> tags

22.14.4 Avoiding redundant attribute assignments in tables

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