Checking your site on Multiple Browsers

I have always advised people in forums and blogs to check their website or blog in multiple browsers. For me thats usually opera, IE and firefox however i should really periodically check it with a few others too.

I was talking to Sergio from SOS Newbie the other day on messenger and he asked what happened to the site and said that it was all messed up in internet explorer. I checked and everything was fine on IE, opera and firefox. I asked what version of IE he was using found he was using IE6. I currently use IE7.

You can install older versions of most browsers quite easily however IE is different because of how integrated it is with windows.

As it stands just now, people viewing this site with internet explorer 6 or below will see the right column undeneath the main content. I apologise to those out there who are having problems browsing the site. I have been looking into this the last 5 or 6 hours and its due to a problem with how IE 6 handles certain css attributes - namely the float and alignment variables. Im starting to come to grips with css but i havent really read anything about which tags don’t work in certain browsers. I am doing my best to learn whats causing all this and when i do ill pass this information on to you guys

To make matters worse, in the middle of writing this article all sites on my server went down. When it rains it pours!!

Quickly check your site on multiple browsers

Whilst trying to see what exactly was wrong with the site i came across a great site called Browser Shots. Browser Shots is a free service that lets you check screen prints of your website in every situation - eg. different browsers, with flash installed, without it, with javascript enabled and so on and so on. There are some slightly better alternatives out there but most are quite expensive.

Browser Shots works quite simply. You tell the site to scan your blog and then your blog is put into a queue. Depending on what time of day you enter your site images could take a couple of hours to be ready. Once its complete though you will have access to numerous pics of how your site looks in different situations.

Install Older Versions of Popular Browsers

Browser shots might highlight theres a problem in your design but it doesn’t help you with fixing it. To do that you need to be able to check your blog in a real situation. At first i assumed i’d be out of luck as most of the articles i read about it said that you had to install multiple versions of windows to be able to use both versions of IE.

A few hours of searching later and i finally found a site which not only had multiple versions of most browsers but it had stand alone versions of old internet explorer’s. This was a godsend! The site i found was Evolt. You can find stand alone versions of older internet explorers here and can download older versions of most other browsers here.

Overview

It’s very important to check your blog on different browsers when your working on the design of your blog. I’ve also learned the hard way how useful it is to have older copies of internet explorer available on your pc so that you can check your sites in every situation. Bear in mind when working with css that some variables work differently in IE 6 and 7 and also on firefox and opera.

It’s a complete pain in the ass to do all this but theres no other way around it. Again, apologies to those who have had problems viewing BloggingTips. If you are using the latest versions of opera, firefox or IE you won’t have a problem.

Once i get it all resolved i’ll post and explain what exactly was wrong. Thanks, Kevin