Browser independent site

[harry]

How can i build a website which will look alike on all browsers ( ie browser independent )

[sanderson]

Hi harry,
Good intention you have. Though "all browsers" is very broad thing. What do you mean by all browsers? There are many kind of browsers. If you could explain it a bit more would be helpful.

[paul]

Develop your site in firefox and test it in different version of IE and thereafter to other browsers like Opera, safari etc, I believe this tutorials will guide you for testing your site in different version of IE; labs.insert-title.com/labs/Multiple-IEs-in-Windows_article795.aspx, Also this thread will help you to check screeshots in different browsers; Browser compatibility

[Peter]

The general tips to create a cross browser compatible site would be

Use only standard compliant code
Do not use browser specific HTML tags and features as these only work in the browser they were created for.
Validate your HTML/XHTML coding and your cascading style sheets using W3C free validation service.

You can also check out this site browsercam.com. It offers a browser check service and covers just about every popular browser known. It is not free to use but they do offer a free trial.

[kev woodman]

Unfortunately having valid CSS will not solve compatability problems. Cross browser compatability is the single most frustrating element of Web design, unless you happen to be lucky enough to be working on an Intranet.

I'd say code your CSS for Firefox and avoid using IE 'hacks' - they will only break in IE7 anyway. A good way to overcome CSS problems is to use conditional comments in your code to include a stylesheet just for IE. This is perfectly valid and lets you tweak your code just for IE.

For example say your main style sheet is called main.css and you have some tweaks that need to be applied to IE6 only you could create another stylesheet called ie6.css and include this code in

<...>
<


The conditional comment is only seen by IE and only applied to IE6.

[kev woodman]

Oh and if there's a choice between having it look at its best in either FF or IE - go for IE unless your target audience is particularly geeky

[paul]

I am not sure how you will come out with PNG problem in IE, as IE does not fully support PNG.

[kev woodman]

IE7 supports PNG transparency now. IE6 supports PNG but not PNG transparency. There doesn't seem to be any move to add transparency support to IE6 retrospectively.

[paul]

Anyway its too late, I am not excited by this as both firefox and Opera even from opensource ground they are providing correct browser rendering.

[kev woodman]

MS would argue that they actually interpret the W3C specification properly and FF gets it wrong. They are right to an extent as well...FF doesn't render CSS perfectly and the closest browser to passing the acid test is Opera 9.

Simple fact is that it does not matter if MS decides IE should render red as green and add twenty pixels to every margin - the fact is that 80% of your visitors will be using IE so you better code for that.

[paul]

Originally Posted by kev woodman

the fact is that 80% of your visitors will be using IE so you better code for that.

Well, the web is chaotic place, btw such market power of IE has been gained through illegal use of MS's monopoly, critic says IE is moving towards the privatization of the Web- that just seems ridiculous

[kev woodman]

Well we could debate IE vs the oppoisition and how evil MS are all day but the fact is that most people use IE so you have to design for them.