Making a website compatible with multi browsers??

[rowal5555]

A friend of mine has spent a lot of personal time developing a business website with Publisher 2003, which apparently only works properly with Internet Explorer.

 

She has asked me to try and find out from you good people how to make it compatible with other browsers. This is not my sort of thing at all, so any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

 

The site is

solarshop.co.nz

 

Cheers

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

Apparently it will only work in Internet Explorer if you use Microsoft Publisher.

 

You will have to use a program like Dreamweaver or write your own HTML and CSS.

 

Hope this helps.

[JEBWrench]

Ah, the timeless question.

 

First and foremost, the best way to achieve maximum compatibility is to hand-code, though using a tool to assist you like Dreamweaver or various others is helpful, especially if they have a validation tool.

 

The problem with MS' products is that they produce strange code that is meant to work on the IE browser only, which is for most needs, acceptable, since that's nearly 80% of the browser market (depending on whose statistics you go by, it can range from 73 - 83).

 

For a site looking to promote a product, you want to make it compatible to at least FireFox as well, as it has a 15-23% share. The best way to make a page compatible with both is to use valid code as much as possible.

 

However! Internet Explorer still parses code from before there was such a thing as standards (which is why it isn't standards-compliant). So, you have to keep in mind its shortcomings. Margins declared in CSS will be doubled, and a width statement will include the borders and padding as well as the actual content of the box-model.

 

Other things to keep in mind is that every browser handles fonts and images differently, so try to use font families in declarations on the site. Don't just say to use only one irregular font, list a few, and then end off with something like "serif" for the headers, and "sans-serif" for regular text.

 

One thing that many designers do is also to make the font sizes easier to work with by making them a little bit smaller, but it's not always as effective as some people claim at being able to support resizing.

[rowal5555]

Thanks folks

 

That gave her some ideas and she is now having some success with her trials.

 

Cheers

[RandyL]

Glad your making progress. If you need more help let us know. There are sites with tools to check cross browsing validation if you would like them. It's not easy though unless you know how to write the code.

 

In the mean time we depend on the members to help us with feedback and to help us answer posts. So check back with the forum when you can. Maybe next time you can help a member with a problem. That's what it's all about. People helping people.

 

Once again thanks.

[rowal5555]

Thanks Randy

If you care to link me to those sites, I would appreciate it and will pass them on.

Cheers

[RandyL]

Page Valet and Site Valet

W3C Markup Validation and W3C CSS Validation

WDG HTML Validator and WDG CSSCheck

 

See if any of those help. Best wishes.

[AdvancedSetup]

Here is an excellent site with a lot of information and help on creating cross browser compliant sites. It is not free, but is very organized and a lot of good data. It is geared a bit more towards professionals with Adobe tools, but it can be done using other tools.

 

communitymx.com

 

They are all professional Web Developers and strive to achieve full compliance with all modern browsers.

 

 

.

[rowal5555]

The site I mentioned above now works much better in OPERA but not in FF. However, the same site under the name of home now works very well under all 3 main browsers, so Chessa thanks you all very much for your valued help.

 

Cheers

[maynardvdm]

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