Is Your Website Cross Browser Compatible ? ; CSS, Html & Compatibility

29 Sep
2008
Delicious

wow Is Your Website Cross Browser Compatible ? ; CSS, Html & Compatibility

At any point in time as an average user of the web or a website developer have you ever thought to yourself “Hmmmm I wonder how many websites are out there” .

But before we even try to answer that question the more important question should be answered. How many browsers are out there and do all these browsers show me the same exact site that I created down to the very pixel?

If you have never even thought about this then you may be in for a surprise shock. Unless you paid a well qualified designer who knows his XHTML and CSS chances are there may be 2 or more things off in your website as far as the aesthetics look. Why does this matter you might be asking ? Let me tell you friend not everyone in the world uses the same browser as you do. Hell you may even have people still using IE 4.X or below. I’m not saying go hire a very expensive coder to fix your site to accommodate every browser known to man, but try to accommodate up til IE4-5. Most people will tell you the minimum is 4.X users , use your own discretion. Your website , blog or what have you may not look as appealing or even show errors to your potential readers.

So how do we fix this ? Very simple in some cases and a total pain in the others. In some cases its just a simple “” tag not closed properly or more complicated if your using a CMS.

Fortunately there are a few websites that are on the web that can help you determine if your website is truly compatible with every browser from Safari to Mozilla’s Firefox all the way to Google Chrome.

The First is called Browser Shots” and basically it runs I believe on 50 servers with each running a different browser of your site and sending you a snapshot of it. I personally LOVE this site to death as it shows you if there are any quirks in your coding or CSS that you can improve on. Because most likely your disgruntled potential reader won’t email you of the mess up and will just think your layout is MEANT to look that way.

browserscam Is Your Website Cross Browser Compatible ? ; CSS, Html & Compatibility

The second website is well known as you may have seen it in the footer tagged on some websites. It’s called Markup Validation service by W3C this takes the website URL you submit to it and it will return to you with the specific tag and line that is causing the error. It truly is an amazing beneficial tool that will save you HOURS and probably save you from going blind staring at your monitor.

validate Is Your Website Cross Browser Compatible ? ; CSS, Html & Compatibility

Lastly while you are troubleshooting and notice only IE 5/6/7 are giving you troubles than you may want to take a look at this website. The author of this script created a JavaScript that is to be placed into the header of your layout and it will try to fix any issues your website is have while trying to be displayed on an IE based browser. Other than this script I suggest keeping crazy JavaScript that manipulate CSS at a minimum.

fxs Is Your Website Cross Browser Compatible ? ; CSS, Html & Compatibility

I hope this helped you !


A wide range of braindumps exam material are also helpful in cross browser compatibility in which Citrix 1Y0-A09 for implementing XenServer and juniper associate exam JN0-522 are very popular.

Incoming Search Terms :website compatibility , html compatibility , css for all browsers , how to make website compatible with all browsers , how to make a website compatible with all browsers , html viewing in different browsers , html cross browser compatibility , css differences between browsers , browser compatibility css , css compatible with all browsers

Share this story with a friend !
Join SherifAbdou's Rss Feed Stumble This Article! Add this to your Delicious Bookmarks! Digg this story ! Add this story to Reddit ! Tweet This Brush


39 Responses to Is Your Website Cross Browser Compatible ? ; CSS, Html & Compatibility

Avatar

Is Your Website Compatible with all browsers ? | WhiteSandsDigital.com

September 29th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

[...] , Chrome , IE , Safari. Most likely you may find an error or 2. Check out how to FIX IT also!read more | digg [...]

Avatar

KrasiNo Gravatar

September 30th, 2008 at 1:32 am

Woohoo :)

I am so happy my website is compatible with most browsers but that W3C validator totally sucks :( found like 135 Errors and most of them were strange and for example it told me there is no tag called “target” LOL.
:alien: :alien: :alien:

http://gamesorbiter.com

Avatar

RayNo Gravatar

September 30th, 2008 at 3:45 pm

The ‘minimum’ is IE4? I would say that these days, you shouldn’t have to worry about supporting anyone using any version that came out before IE6. Sure, accessibility is important, but supporting early browsers just doesn’t make sense in a lot of contexts.

Avatar

Tu sitio web es cross-browser? — Tablosign

September 30th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

[...] artículo que nos provee de buenas utilidades para conseguir un sitio cross-browser. 0 [...]

Avatar

kluizenaarNo Gravatar

September 30th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Come on. IE4/5/5.5 are history. Supporting them is nothing worth anymore. Users that are still on a browser that old have many problems… the layout of a site being the least of them.

Avatar

charlesNo Gravatar

September 30th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

Great tools, luckily I passed

Avatar

AmitNo Gravatar

September 30th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

Try the following new website for web browser discussion…

http://www.browserspot.com

Avatar

BrowserShots ¿Es tu web compatible con todos los navegadores? | Libro de Apuntes

September 30th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

[...] cierto, me he dado cuenta de que aún no había comentado sobre esta herramienta mientras leía Is Your Website Cross Browser Compatible (vía [...]

Avatar

RickNo Gravatar

September 30th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Real developers run all the popular browsers on all the popular OSes. :ninja:

Avatar

designing.net.nzNo Gravatar

September 30th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

Would really say the majority shouldn’t bother with iE5 and below, they constitute around 1% of the market (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp), and economically not viable for clients to worry about. Likewise for smaller clients with tight budgets, generally ie6,7 & ff are all that are required (93-96% of total market).

Avatar

Turulcsirip - Tamas Bogdan

September 30th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

[...] your website compatibility: http://sherifabdou.com/2008/09/is-your-website-cross-crowser-compatible-css-html-compatibility « előző | következő » Tamas Bogdan — 2008. 09. 30. [...]

Avatar

AllanNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 2:21 am

IE4? LOL. As far as I’m concerned, users can expect a degraded experience for anything below IE7. I will not support IE6 any longer. I’m not saying that I don’t test in IE6, and I fix issues which affect the functionality and/or access to the information, but the investment of time spent is not worth the payoff. I say force users to upgrade.

Avatar

RyanNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 3:12 am

@designing.net.nz

Getting browser stats from w3schools is pretty much useless unless you’re building a website aimed at web developers and you want to know the browsers they’re using.

Avatar

Comprueba cómo se ve tu blog en cualquier navegador | La Cartumba

October 1st, 2008 at 3:29 am

[...] | Sherif Abdou (visto en [...]

Avatar

steltNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 7:06 am

@Krasi: there are different HTML versions, of which some really don’t have the “target” attribute.

Avatar

GilzowNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 8:19 am

@Krasi – you’ve got all kinds of problems with your site, at least for your declared doctype (XHTML 1.1). If you declared HTML 4, you wouldnt see nearly as many errors. And yes, the “target” /attribute/ is no longer valid if your doctype is XHTML. The W3c validator works as it should; you just haven’t coded your site to the specifications of the doctype you have declared.

Also, your hidden input “tafurl” in the “tell your friend” feature is vulnerable to cross-site scripting.

Avatar

Anthony ShortNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 8:28 am

@Krasi – If you’re being serious, the attribute “target” isn’t valid under Strict.

Avatar

CameronNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 10:27 am

In your article:

“”

should be

“”

Also IE 4 is very very very dead.

Avatar

CameronNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 10:28 am

OK :)

Div

should be

div

Avatar

GiacomoNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 10:35 am

great tool! thanx!

Avatar

RohinNo Gravatar

October 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am

Not a problem ! , I believe that supporting older technology will help your international readers who may not have the Latest browsers , then again most people would argue that it only constitutes 1% of the browsers currently active. I guess I’m just more accommodating. :happy:

Avatar

FubizNo Gravatar

October 2nd, 2008 at 3:38 am

Excellent tool.

Avatar

Il tuo sito è compatibile con i principali Browser? » ZioGeeK.com

October 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 am

[...] [Via] [...]

Avatar

Harry RobertsNo Gravatar

October 2nd, 2008 at 4:49 am

@ Krasi – there is not tag called target. There is however an attribute called target, but it shouldn’t be used (I’m guessing you were validating in a Strict DOCTYPE to receive that message).

Avatar

Is Your Website Compatible with all browsers ? « Element J

October 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 am

[...] read more | digg story [...]

Avatar

Steve WNo Gravatar

October 5th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

I can’t believe that even 1% of users still have IE 5.5 or below. I would rather spend that time and effort to get things looking right in IE4 – IE5.5 instead on further enhancing the site for better accessibility. Besides, browsers that old can’t handle the more advanced functionality that most clients these days look for (as much as I hate the term, they ask if we do “web 2.0″). Although I agree that you should strive to make a site that’s browser tested and bulletproof, the ratio of time to testing and the lost functionality has to be considered as well.

Avatar

matthewNo Gravatar

October 10th, 2008 at 5:13 am

Great tools, luckily I passed :lol:

Avatar

Virtual MilleniumNo Gravatar

November 25th, 2008 at 11:47 am

I've just finished working on my new theme, I checked it with xhtml and css validators, everything is OK, I just needed to see if it was compatible with all browser, that's when I found “Browser Shots” from your post, I'm trying it right now, so thank you for sharing the information :)

Avatar

Guest Post on Sherif Abdou Design Blog « Paperdreamer

December 19th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

[...] are a production of Rohin Sharma and Sherif Abdou. Some projects they have done in the past include the basic differences between different web browsers, understanding your sense of style as a graphic designer, and how to make your website better (by [...]

Avatar

darbezNo Gravatar

February 17th, 2009 at 11:45 am

good one

Avatar

DavidNo Gravatar

March 16th, 2009 at 5:13 am

Thanks for referring browsershots, really useful for designers.

Avatar

AlfredNNo Gravatar

April 8th, 2009 at 8:19 pm

Great posed question, detailed and informed answer; great post, thanks a bunch.

Avatar

wahwaNo Gravatar

April 21st, 2009 at 4:07 am

THX

Avatar

FaisalNo Gravatar

April 27th, 2009 at 12:34 pm

i have a problem
i make a static web site.When i open it in IE7 he open according to tags but whe n i open in Google Chrome or Firefox he get problems.Tags are not on his real place.i want to know how to compatible html tags with other brower that he give same look to all browers.

Avatar

LocationBNo Gravatar

May 11th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

That really made no sense…?

Avatar

kmpoaquestsNo Gravatar

May 11th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

Yea I gotta agree with you on that one , I dunno what the hell I was thinking approving it lol but didn\\'t wanna hurt anyone\\'s feelings.

Avatar

ithemesdotnetNo Gravatar

July 31st, 2009 at 4:01 pm

Xenocode Browser Sandbox is the best tool I have found for checking cross browser compatibility.

Avatar

Andrew JhonsonNo Gravatar

August 20th, 2009 at 3:03 am

To rescue the web designers from this aching job of testing browser compatibility in different browsers there are few websites which offer this service. On these websites you can check the compatibility of your website in all desired browsers. You can find these websites at http://www.bestpsdtohtml.com/7-awesome-resources-to-test-cross-browser-compatibility-of-your-website/

Avatar

Lee DavisNo Gravatar

January 9th, 2010 at 1:01 am

Uh….Xenocode Browser Sandbox anyone?
http://spoon.net/browsers/
IE 6/7/8, FF2/3/3.5, Safari 3/4, Opera 9/10, & Google Chrome – that should be as good as you need, free, and with downloadable plugin.

Comment Form