title: Why do I need a doctype? (What does it do)
body: <blockquote>
    <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1818587/html-what-is-the-functionality-of-doctype">HTML: What is the functionality of !DOCTYPE</a>  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  
  
  <p>I recently asked a question here and the solution was a simple:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>You need to add a doctype to the page. This should fix the issue for you.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Now, my pages work fine in every browser without the doctype (except IE).  Does IE need a doctype (is this an IE only thing) and do other browsers just assume it <strong><em>OR</em></strong> or is it doing something I'm not seeing.</p>
  
  <p>What are its functions and how does it work?</p>