Browser compatibility

Browser differences when designing web pages

The major web browsers today 2008 are Internet Explorer, and Firefox, with Safari and Opera having a very low usage. As browsers have developed they have supported the various web standards for HTML, DHTML, Javascript and XML to a differing degree.

While recent versions of browsers are much more compliant with W3C standards, you still need to check what your web pages look like in the two major browsers, especially if you are using CSS. I would recommend checking at least with IE and Firefox.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer is probably the most user-friendly and best performing browser.
Internet Explorer version 4 introduced support for Dynamic HTML (DHTML).
Internet Explorer 5.5 introduced support for XML.
Support for CSS stylesheets has beed good since version 4.

For more detailed information on Internet Explorer's features click here.

FireFox

Mozilla is an Open Source community of developers and testers and it released the Firefox browser in 2005. This is a great browser and allows you to open multiple pages in separate tabs inside the same window.

Firefox is excellent for web developers because there are so many open-source free add-ons or extensions which help you develop your web pages. When you open Firefox go to > Tools > Add-Ons > and click "Get Extensions"

Other Browsers

Netscape

These days you don't really need to bother about optimising for Netscape as it is hardly used.

Netscape 4 included support for cascading style sheets (CSS), inline support for PNG graphics, and improved OLE support, as well as layering and absolute positioning.

Netscape 6 introduced support for XML and adheres much more closely to the W3C web standards than previous versions of both Netscape and Internet Explorer, and therefore handles DHTML and CSS stylesheets much better. However in terms of performance, Netscape 4.7 and IE outperform it. Badly written code can cause this browser to crash easily, however version 6.2.2 fixed some of the bugs. The current version is Netscape 8.0.

For more detailed information on designing web pages for Netscape click here..

Opera

Opera is an excellent browser which has good performance and speed and Version 4+ onwards supports nearly everything with good multimedia capabilities. For more detailed information on Opera's features click here..

Testing your web pages

The best way to test your web pages is to download and install the version you want to your own computer.

You can download older versions of Mozilla Firefox from:
http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.htm

You can download older versions of Internet Explorer from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/archive/default.asp

You can download older versions of Netscape from:
http://home.netscape.com/download/archive/index.html

When you download the program, it will ask you which directory you want to save it in. Create a new directory under your "Program files" directory (eg: Firefox 3.0) and then save it there. If it does not install automatically on your computer then browse to the directory where you saved it and double click the .exe file. Note that when installing, you will be asked if you want to make the new browser your default browser. Make sure that you don't check this box if you don't want this option. You can always change the default browser later in your Internet settings.

There is also a site called AnyBrowser which will allow you to preview your live website in different browsers if you cannot view them on your own PC. This is a second best option as you would not be seeing your site first hand as a visitor would see it. It is still very useful tool if you cannot download browsers to your PC.

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