- The Crime Scene
- Follow the Evidence
- The Evidence Never Lies
- Case Closed!
From the book
From the book
Case Closed!
With these simple fixes, Harry is up and running again and on top of the world. I commend him on his clean markup, but warn him to make sure to give himself more time, remember the little details, and to validate before panicking. He thanks us both profusely, and leaves to finish his preparation for the big presentation—and his inevitable promotion.
Harry’s problems were simple ones, but also small and detail-oriented. They could be easily missed by the untrained eye or without a reasonable dose of patience. Obviously, the validators are invaluable for finding the sorts of problems that a human can easily miss, but there are some problems that even the validator will overlook that a keen eye won’t. After validating, a great place to start is with the basics: spelling, punctuation, and proper syntax. Often, something as small as a missing period can make a huge difference.
In addition to validating and starting with the basics, remember to start searching for the culprit at the top of the document and work your way down. Many of Harry’s problems were in the top third of the CSS code, but had large effects on the way the page appeared.
Finally, using a process of elimination to focus on the elements that are out of place will most often take you straight to the heart of the problem.
Our first case together was a success. However, I suspect that our problems may get more complicated.