After you have created your Web site, it's a good idea to make sure it works. It can be very frustrating for visitors to your site to receive a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) error when they click a link, or to find that the graphics on the site are missing. The best way to keep errors to a minimum is to test the site thoroughly with a well-planned testing process.

Make a list of what you need to test

To develop a thorough test plan, begin by making a list of what you need to test. You should include all elements of the Web site, including links to other pages, images, e-mail links, navigation panes or bars, and menus. Here is a basic list of elements your site might contain:

• Links to other pages and other sites
• Graphics
• Animations
• Special characters (also known as extended characters, such as the division symbol ÷)
• Menus
• Navigation panes/bars
• Previous/Next buttons or links
• Tables
• Banners
• Multiple fonts
• Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
• Hit counters
• Search engines

Define exactly what you are testing for

After you have created the list of elements that you need to test, you will need to determine exactly what you are testing for. For example, if you have graphics on your Web site, do they appear? If the graphics include alternative, or "alt," text, does the alt text appear? (If you are not familiar with alt text, read Provide alt text to describe graphics verbally in Office for more information.) If you have captions for the graphics, do they appear correctly? Here is a sample testing check list. (This is just a sample testing list. The tests you need to perform will vary depending on the content on your Web site.)

You should also consider testing your site to make sure it is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. For more information, see Testing Guidelines for Accessibility.

 Note   If you create your Web site with Microsoft FrontPage® 2000, you can view a graphical display of the hyperlinks contained within your site by clicking Hyperlinks on the View menu. The hyperlinks view shows the links between pages, as well as broken links that need repair. Read Fixing broken hyperlinks in FrontPage 2000-based Webs for more information.

Test your Web site on different computers and different browsers

After you have tested your Web site on your own computer, be sure to test it on another computer. If you have access to a network server (in a corporate environment), try copying your site to the server and running through your testing check list again. By testing your Web site on another computer, for example, you can quickly determine if there are any missing graphics on your pages. If your graphics are replaced by a red "X," you will know there is a problem. For more information about how to avoid missing graphics, read Avoid missing graphics when you create a Web page in Office. For other problems you might encounter with graphics, read Issues with graphics used on Web pages in Office.

It is also a good idea to test your Web site using different Web browsers. Depending on the final location of your site — the Internet or an intranet — you might even test different versions of browsers. Some older versions of browsers do not support tables and other browsers don't support special (extended) characters. Testing your site with different browsers allows you to determine the minimum requirements for a browser to view the site. Once you know the browser requirements, be sure to add that information to your home page.

• If your Web site will reside on an intranet   Determine which versions of a particular browser the corporation is using. Most corporations use one brand of Web browser, but two different versions may be in use as a corporation upgrades from one version to the next.
• If your Web site will reside on the Internet   Test different brands of browser and different versions of those browsers.

Publish and test the site again

At this point, your Web site is thoroughly tested. Regardless of where you finally place your site, do one final test pass to make sure it works correctly. When you publish your site, be sure to publish all of the related files for the site. For example, graphics are often saved to a subfolder along with other support files. If you forget to publish this folder, your graphics may suddenly disappear. Once you have completed a final test, you can be assured that your Web site is very robust.