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**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 30, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265 "2008-10-30T16:44:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265/1 "2008-10-30T16:44:09Z")
Is there a program that can easily check if all my HTML tags are closed? I don’t want to deal with any other “validation” nonsense, I just need an easy way to check the tags.
Is there a way?
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**Author:**  [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265/2 "2008-10-30T16:47:05Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#):
>
> Is there a program that can easily check if all my HTML tags are closed? I don’t want to deal with any other “validation” nonsense, I just need an easy way to check the tags.
>
> Is there a way?
Use an editor with automatic indentation, and let it indent the whole file. If it looks wrong, you’ve made a mistake.
Of course, validation is a lot more reliable…
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**Author:**  [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265/3 "2008-10-30T16:52:43Z")
Both [Macromedia’s Homesite](http://www.adobe.com/products/homesite/) and [BareBones BBedit](http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/) do code validation. Both offer free trials, so you can see if they meet your needs.
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**Author:**  [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265/4 "2008-10-30T17:40:15Z")
Rejoice, for [TagCheck](http://www.angelfire.com/biz/rhaminisys/tagcheck.html) will validate your tags for you without indundating you with style “errors”. I stumbled upon this when I had a similar problem, and I’ve used it many times since. Hope it helps.
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**Author:**  [@happ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happ)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265/5 "2008-10-30T17:40:34Z")
[Notepad ++](http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) makes this easier, as it brackets the tags so you can easily see if something was left open.
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**Author:**  [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265/6 "2008-10-30T18:38:38Z")
Here is an online html validator: [http://validator.w3.org/](http://validator.w3.org/)
It will not just check for valid tags, but also if your html is 100% compliant.
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**Author:**  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-is-there-an-easy-way-to-make-sure-all-my-tags-are-closed/470265/7 "2008-10-30T18:58:41Z")
If you don’t validate your HTML chances are your website will look awful in some browsers. I understand a lot of people don’t care if there websites don’t work, but in that case just use a validation site, and go down the list of errors and it will say “unclosed tag” So close all the unclosed tags and ignore the other errors