Date: 02/24/08 (Web Development)    Keywords: php, css, html

I own a fanlisting that's returning troubles in IE7, which I don't have access to at all. I figured I might try and sort out the problem by taking the page in question to a W3C validator, and I got the following error, repeated 6 times for a navigation menu I have on my page:

document type does not allow element "DIV" here; missing one of "APPLET", "OBJECT", "MAP", "IFRAME", "BUTTON" start-tag.

<div class="navitem"><span><a href="about.php">About</a></span> </div>

The mentioned element is not allowed to appear in the context in which you've placed it; the other mentioned elements are the only ones that are both allowed there and can contain the element mentioned. This might mean that you need a containing element, or possibly that you've forgotten to close a previous element.

One possible cause for this message is that you have attempted to put a block-level element (such as "<p>" or "<table>") inside an inline element (such as "<a>", "<span>", or "<font>").


I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I vaguely understand the concept of block vs. inline elements, but I can't remember what goes in what (or more precisely, what can and what shouldn't go into what).

I"m not even sure if this is the reason why my page doesn't display properly in IE7, but I'm hoping it's a step in the right direction.

Help?

ETA: I tried for HTML 4.01 Transitional, and it passed after the latest (online) revision, but now my DIV links in the navigation area aren't working at all. I don't understand why they're not; the CSS defined a single, large background image and the proper display location for the layer with the links... and it worked before everything was validated, so now I'm even more confused.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdev/468933.html