| Tips, Tricks & Secrets ... Continued: Page 4 |
Browser Incompatibility:
So Many Browsers, So Little Compatibility:
The largest single ISP is AOL, with approximately 34 million customers worldwide. They run on a modified version of MS Internet Explorer. Overall more people, US and worldwide, use the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser than any other. Having said that there are still millions of surfers who use Netscape, Opera and many other variations from browser land.
If the different brands of browsers weren't enough of a challenge, there are many different versions of each brand. Each version presents its own unique rules of how to read, interpret and implement the HTML code on the different sized monitors running under the vastly different operating systems.
A well designed, nice looking page that takes advantage of unique HTML calls in one brand and version of any browser is going to have page display problems. That applys to older (or newer) versions of that browser as well as other browser brands.
Study, Study and More Studying:
No attempt will be made here (see below) to try to sort out all the different browsers, rules, variations and web page programming styles (code). Just the warning that after building a web site it needs to be tested and tweaked as necessary (within the owners goals) to achive a balance in correct page display in the various browser types. At HRC we test against the latest versions of AOL, IE, Netscape and Mozilla. In addition we test several others in alpha and beta versions. It our suggestion to the web surfer to download and install the latest version of their favorite browser.
Current Versions:
Currently Microsoft, Mozilla and Netscape provide their latest browsers free of charge.
- Microsoft IE Version 8
- Mozilla Firefox Version 3
- Firefox is a fast, relatively small browser (better than Netscape - no bloat)
- Netscape Version 8
- A slimmed down, relatively fast browser; Opera (Retail)
- W3C own browser Amaya (limited platform support)
- "Designed to be fun and easy to use"; Neoplanet
- All the current browsers started with Mosaic Ver. 3.0
Sites Dedicated to Solving Compatibility Issues:
These are long term goal oreinted organizations that want all browsers to meet a current standard.
- The World Wide Web Consortium "W3C" to lead the Web to its full potential.
- Allows web page checking by older browser styles; delorie.com
- The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for browser standards.
- The Viewable with Any Browser Campaign is a noble effort.
Sites Dealing with Current HTML Incompatibilities:
These are (for the most part) in the trenches, make it work, NOW web designers.
- Deals with Browser useability; Lighthouse on the Web.
- Indepth examples and help with browsers' quirks A List Apart.
- A nice list of browsers and page compatibility issues; Yahoo; Internet Info
- Learn The Net has good tutorial on HTML compatibility here.
- Webdisplays has some good lists of that comapre browsers features.
- This is the area within aol.com that compares its browers features.
- Test a web site with this online browser emulator.
Continued problems in this area can be solved by additional work with one or more of the Online HTML Instruction resources.
Color Depth:
This area used to be full of tips and tricks on dealing with the problem of dithered colors to work with the 16 color based video cards that most people were using. Today the statistic show that 46% of surfers have 65 thousand color displays, 39% have 65 million color displays, 10% have 16 million color displays and less than 5% use 256 color displays. Problem solved.
Choose The Right Colors:
When colors are done correctly they can leave a lasting impression. Keep in mind that colors have a different emotional meaning and impact on the packaging.
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