category links won't validate - help

Hi,

I had my site validating with the w3c html validator fine, until I put a 3x3 table in my main page containing category images and links to each category, now i get an error for each link because the links contain the character "&" and html thinks this is the beginning of an entity reference or something. I understand to correct this I have to write the links with "&" instead. The problem is when i do this in the plain text editor it wont let me save it????? any ideas anyone??

         cannot generate system identifier for general entity "cPath"....e-vstore.com/index.php?main_page=inde[B]x[/B]&cPath=9">Vibrators</a><br /></td><td a                 An entity reference was found in the document, but there is no reference       by that name defined. Often this is caused by misspelling the reference       name, unencoded ampersands, or by leaving off the trailing semicolon (;).       [B]The most common cause of this error is unencoded ampersands in       URLs[/B] as described by the [URL="http://www.htmlhelp.com/"]WDG[/URL] in "[URL="http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/problems.html#amp"]Ampersands         in URLs[/URL]".     
            Entity references start with an ampersand (&) and end with a       semicolon (;). If you want to use a literal ampersand in your document       you must encode it as "&" ([I]even inside URLs![/I]). Be       careful to end entity references with a semicolon or your entity       reference may get interpreted in connection with the following text.       Also keep in mind that named entity references are case-sensitive;       &Aelig; and æ are different characters.     
            If this error appears in some markup generated by PHP's session handling       code, [URL="http://www.w3.org/QA/2005/04/php-session"]this article[/URL] has        explanations and solutions to your problem.     
            Note that in most documents, errors related to entity references will       trigger up to 5 separate messages from the Validator. Usually these       will all disappear when the original problem is fixed.     
   
```Thank you in advance
<http://www.the-vstore.com>

Are you sure you mean "plain text" editor? Normally, this sort of problem occurs when you use the HTMLarea text editor - even in Source mode - instead of plain text.

Why did you hardcode links when you could have just turned on the Categories Display from your Admin?

hmmm....

not sure why i didnt do that kim, i have done now and it is validating fine. thanks for the help and sorry for wasting forum space!

I'm a ninny.

After inserting a table my page validates okay. After inserting images or text I get the following error : "document type does not allow element "table" here; missing one of "object", "applet", "map", "iframe", "button", "ins", "del" start-tag.

...llpadding="4" width="100%" border="1"><tbody><tr><td><p align="center"> <img"

I seem to get this alot when using tables, and not sure what Im doing wrong. Any clues I thank you
an example of this error is at:

http://www.pepper-spray.biz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=18