What is a DOCTYPE and why is it screwing me up?

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From: Viken Karaguesian (vikenk_at_NOSPAMcomcast.net)
Date: 03/07/05 

Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 21:38:56 -0500

Hello all,

I recently downloaded a javascript to use in my website. The javascript
required a DOCTYPE statement be placed before the HTML tag.

The problem is: when I insert the DOCTYPE tag my page doesn't look right.
The page itsself seems to widen and a horizontal scrollbar is always
present. Even if I remove everything from my page, the horizontal and
vertical scrollbars are always there. This only seemed to be a problem in
Internet Explorer.

So, to make a long story short, I started rebuilding a new page and checked
each step in the browser one by one until I found the problem: Any time I
set my line spacing to 1-1/2 lines or double-spaced, the scroll bars
appeared.

Now that you have a brief history, I have some questions :>)

1. What exactly is a Doctype? Transitional vs Non-transitional, etc...

2. What's the problem with lines that are double-spaced or 1-1/2 line
spaced?

3. How can I get around that?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Viken K.

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