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Why doesn't my web page work in a specific browser?You design your page, it looks great, everything is perfect, maybe not. This is a problem that even the most experienced webmasters face, "Browser Incompatibility". Most people will design there web page in the browser they most often use, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc... You can easily get your web page looking good in one browser, but how about getting it looking good in the other's. Have you tried visiting your website using another browser, or browser version, you may be surprised. You may find that your tags, styles, scripts, or embedded objects aren’t working. Why does this happen you ask, well it's because all browser's, and version’s of browser work a little differently. The reason it looks completely different is because some browser's don't support the feature's you've used on your web site, or because the browser requires you to use a different syntax, or tag to perform the same function. For example if your using a citrine HTML tag on your site, when you look at it through Internet Explorer, it looks O.K. because Internet Explorer can support the HTML tag your using, but when you view it through Netscape, you either see an error on the page, or you don't see that part of your page at all. If your using a citrine HTML tag or attribute on your site, and view the page with a browser that doesn’t support that tag, it will generally skip it and display the page as best as it can.
There's a few way's of fixing this problem, try the following: 1. First you need to decide how serious the problem is, if your page doesn't look right in the most recent version of the most popular browser like Internet Explorer, or Netscape, yes your probably going to want to fix this. On the other hand if you have some minor problems such as your graphics don’t line up exactly in Web TV or another unpopular browser, you may choose to skip it. You can never get your website to look perfect in EVERY SINGLE BROWSER. Not even the best of the best like www.Yahoo.com or www.AOL.com can't do this. 2. Check your web page frequently in more than one type of browser, find out what’s the most popular browser and version visiting your page, and download a copy of it. As you build your website frequently check what it looks like so far. 3. Errors in your script, this could be a problem. Carefully examine your web page, make sure you don't have any errors such as not closing your HTML tags, for example, your bolding some text like this <welcome to my site> but you forget the ending tag, so it looks like this <welcome to my site This could cause some problems in certain browser. 4. If you can't find any errors, you might want to try using a HTML Validation Tool, this is a program that will check your script for any errors. You can download a great HTML Validate called "CSE HTML Validator Lite 2.5" by Clicking Here, this file is 2.8 MB's, it's freeware and you can use it as much as you want. This version is the lite version of the more powerful version called CSE HTML Validator Professional 4.52 witch you can download by Clicking Here, this file is 2.9 MB's, and is only a 30 Day Free Trial, after 30 day's you can buy it if you wish. I would suggest first only downloading the Lite version, this is most likely all you need, once you use it, and your still having problems, you should then try downloading the pro version. 5. The HTML tag your using maybe to complex for certain browser's, or is made specifically for just one browser. For example, the <MARQUE> tag only works in Internet Explorer, and the <BLINK> tag only works in Netscape. You may want to try using a different way of achieving the effect you want. For example if you want your text to BLINK, instead of using the blink tag that only works in Netscape, try using a JavaScript code, or create a graphic that blink's. 6. If your web page uses CSS Cascading Style Sheets, they could be your problem. Where possible, use HTML tags and attributes to create the effect you want. 7. If your web page uses embedded objects, plug-ins, or Java Applets, they might not work in older browsers, or systems that don't have the required software components installed. For example, ActiveX controls only run in Internet Explorer for windows, and even if they do work elsewhere, your viewers would have to download additional plug-ins to support them. Try substituting alternatives that are more compatible or widely supported. 8. If you must have advanced features on your page, you should create links to separate pages for viewers who can't support them. For example you can provide a link to download a new browser, or plug-in, or a link to a more simple version of your web page. |
